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The Official Doctor Strange Movie Thread
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Started by ChrisInBaltimore,

1,320 posts in this topic

Thawk

Thawk

Posted
Posted

Saw it last night IMAX 3D. 3 things:

 

1) Overall I liked it - was fun. Cumberbatch is fun to watch.

 

2) Felt odd to once again have a bunch of white people leading/saving another asian culture based story. Wish Hollywood was better than that. Also, once again fails the Bechdel test pretty hard. So, not exactly a step forward despite having 2 "significant" female characters. Marvel needs to step this up (and they're not alone).

 

3) The dark dimension felt pretty lame to me - it looked like someone saw bacteria under a microscope for the first time and just had to put that on the big screen. "This must be what other dimensions are like!!!!" :eyeroll: Also, didn't love the fruitypebbles-imbibed-Thanos-meets-Galactus-esque-smoke-monster mashup.

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piper

piper

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Posted
For me, a quality villain is equally as important as a quality hero. The hero's journey is nothing, without a villain. It's the other half of the story; a yin and yang sort of thing. Sure, a movie can get by with half, but a truly spectacular movie/story needs a compelling hero and a compelling villain.

 

The X-Men movies have not really been that great overall. What's been carrying them from a story perspective? Professor X and Magneto. Without Magneto, the X-Men movies would not even be worth watching.

 

Again you are missing my point......what villains would you like them to use? :baiting:

 

All the good ones don't belong to Marvel Studios.

 

I suppose you're missing my point as well.

 

All of the villains they've used could be compelling if written in such a way to make them so.

 

And that's just not true that all of the "good villains" don't belong to Marvel Studios. At least, in my opinion it's not true. The buck doesn't stop with Magneto and Dr. Doom being licensed elsewhere. Magneto is my favorite, but there are SO many villains that Marvel has available. Just from the ones I listed in my original post, I'd consider Malekith, Baron Zemo, Ultron and Yellowjacket to be quality villains. Ultron could have been a scary/creepy, original Terminator-style type machination...but instead we got a cartoony, wise-cracking CGI robot with lips and eyebrows. Flat villains is just an ongoing issue for me with the mostly high quality, Marvel movie formula.

 

For me all the villains you have mentioned are not compelling whatsoever.

 

Absolute C cover boys.

 

Once Phase 4 aka Fantastic Four comes into play we will finally see real villains on screen (of course after Thanos), mixed with what we all assume will be a nice partnership of the villians with Spider-man/Sony.

 

I disagree about Ultron as a C. He COULD have been great.

And yeah, other than Thanos, no one's going to compete with Galactus, Dr. Doom, or Magneto.

 

BUT they could've used Kang the Conquerer or the Red Skull (better than they did). Time and the Cosmic Cube are two pretty powerful tools in the hands of those villains.

 

I hope the FF thing happens.

To be able to add the FF, the Inhumans, Galactus, the Silver Surfer, the Skrulls (and Super Skrull), Namor..... just that right there is 4 more movies at least....

 

 

These conversations continue to be about two separate things.

Kingofrulers is saying who it is isn't as important as how it is written.

 

Look at the FF franchise and look at Doctor Doom in those movies. Doom is a quality A list villain, but he sucked in the FF movies because the writing was absolute garbage.

 

Then look at Iron Man 1 which had the Hate Monger/ O. Stane as the villain, a C list villain from the comics but it was very well written in the movie so it was fantastic.

 

 

It just proves that it's possible to write a great story with less than ideal characters. Lazy writing results in a crappie screenplay.

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Straw-Man

Straw-Man

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2) Felt odd to once again have a bunch of white people leading/saving another asian culture based story.

It was Strange, Mordo and Wong. Where was the "bunch of white people?"

 

man, do i have a gut of this stuff. mordo changed to a black dude, but still nothing but the 'whitewashing' with swinton. trophies for everyone!!!

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Thawk

Thawk

Posted
Posted (edited)
2) Felt odd to once again have a bunch of white people leading/saving another asian culture based story.

It was Strange, Mordo and Wong. Where was the "bunch of white people?"

 

Well: Strange discovers someone else has done this training and tracks him down - white guy (his Mom is from Peru I suppose, so maybe doesn't count)? Understands this guy has learned the mystic asian arts and seeks the same. So he travels across the globe to a Nepalese temple to find... a white lady. Upon arrival, learns a previously exceptionally gifted protege was also there but has gone rogue (white guy, whose crew is also all western). The climax of the film then happens in one of the 3 HQs - Hong Kong, where not a single Chinese master/student is present.

 

For a film that had significant portions both set in and drawing from Asian culture, all of the main characters are westerners with the exception of Wong (who is a Brit). I don't usually go looking for that sort of thing (I'm a white guy from Minnesota - can't get much whiter) and frankly don't often notice it - but this did feel out of place to me. I don't mean to take anything away from Wong in terms of heritage either - just felt like for a film with so much Asian influence in both location and culture, it was odd to see so little Asian representation in the principal (or even secondary) cast.

 

Also - It's likely I was already thinking about it because of the Matt Damon trailer from the Great Wall of China movie (single white guy shows up in China to save the world) - so that probably made it worse in my head.

 

Not picking a fight about it - just what I saw and felt. (thumbs u

Edited by Thawk
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Artboy99

Artboy99

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Posted
So far I have heard from three big Marvel fanboy friends. Using Ant-Man as a gauge, one thought it was better and two thought it was worse. lol

Ant-Man the movie was like a baloney sandwich,while the Doctor Strange movie was Filet Mignon.

 

Whereas I am the reverse. I learned more about Antman and know more about what motivates the character than I did in Dr. Strange.

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VintageComics

VintageComics

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LOVED Cumberpatch.

 

Loved the graphics.

 

The cloak was cute, reminded me of the brooms in Fantasia;)

 

I have one question...

where did he have time to learn to use the amulet in-between the London scene and the Hong Kong one?

 

I think the only explanation they offered as to how DS caught up so quick and became a sorcerer was: he was born with a photo graphic memory.

 

On a different note, the guy just literally walked into a room and was immediately taken to a trip to the multi-verse. Ant-Man's trip to the micro-verse had a better set up.

 

My take is that as he was reading the spells from the sacred book, he was able to activate the time function (possibly activating a silent eye in the background) -- as was evidenced from the apple aging back and forth, and then reversing time so that he could read the missing pages. From there it was a matter of recalling what he saw.

 

I also took it as he had spent several years studying in the Himalayas.

 

The Ancient One told him at the start that it would take him several years of study to learn the art and his hair grew more grey during his stay there.

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Rodey

Rodey

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LOVED Cumberpatch.

 

Loved the graphics.

 

The cloak was cute, reminded me of the brooms in Fantasia;)

 

I have one question...

where did he have time to learn to use the amulet in-between the London scene and the Hong Kong one?

 

I think the only explanation they offered as to how DS caught up so quick and became a sorcerer was: he was born with a photo graphic memory.

 

On a different note, the guy just literally walked into a room and was immediately taken to a trip to the multi-verse. Ant-Man's trip to the micro-verse had a better set up.

 

My take is that as he was reading the spells from the sacred book, he was able to activate the time function (possibly activating a silent eye in the background) -- as was evidenced from the apple aging back and forth, and then reversing time so that he could read the missing pages. From there it was a matter of recalling what he saw.

 

I also took it as he had spent several years studying in the Himalayas.

 

The Ancient One told him at the start that it would take him several years of study to learn the art and his hair grew more grey during his stay there.

 

OK. So I wasn't the only that noticed that. And Christine was shocked when he came back to the hospital. I agree, I think they could have done a better job with the time. But I still loved the movie.

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gadzukes

gadzukes

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I really liked the ending but I have a question:

 

 

When DS started coming back in the time loop, how come both he and Dormammu were aware of the previous loops? Wouldn't their brains just reset to the original moment of the loop? I can almost see how DS would be aware of each loop because he held the infinity stone, but why was Dormammu aware of the time loop?

 

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Pete Marino

Pete Marino

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I really liked the ending but I have a question:

 

 

When DS started coming back in the time loop, how come both he and Dormammu were aware of the previous loops? Wouldn't their brains just reset to the original moment of the loop? I can almost see how DS would be aware of each loop because he held the infinity stone, but why was Dormammu aware of the time loop?

 

 

 

Dr Strange as the caster continues to experience time linearly, Dormammu is a 4th dimensional being so he exists outside time, so he would continue to remember the previous iterations of the exchange.

 

At least that's how i reasoned my way though the exchange.

 

 

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chezmtghut

chezmtghut

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I really liked the ending but I have a question:

 

 

When DS started coming back in the time loop, how come both he and Dormammu were aware of the previous loops? Wouldn't their brains just reset to the original moment of the loop? I can almost see how DS would be aware of each loop because he held the infinity stone, but why was Dormammu aware of the time loop?

 

 

 

Dr Strange as the caster continues to experience time linearly, Dormammu is a 4th dimensional being so he exists outside time, so he would continue to remember the previous iterations of the exchange.

 

At least that's how i reasoned my way though the exchange.

 

DS was also able to pull others outside the loop like he did with Mordo & Wong, so I'm thinking it was DS intention to leave Dormammu outside the time loop. Otherwise there would have been no reason for Dormammu to give up & leave earth alone, because he wouldn't have even know that he was stuck in a time loop.

 

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