Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Movies: Dr Strange

Movies: Dr Strange

Introduction
Yet another Marvel movie released from the vast story bank from the minds of Marvel. This time however, its not a sequel, but the introduction of a new character not yet seen in the previous movie. Dr Strange! Yes! Not Mr, not Miss, not Master, not Prof, but Dr. Most of the time, the doctors you hear about in the movies tend to be evil, like Dr Doom or Dr Frankenstein. But finally, you have a literal medical doctor and not the scientist (or mad scientist) kind of doctor in a movie. This plays importantly into the background introduction portion of the movie and what happened to the main character before introducing us into the world of multiverses and magic.

If you seen the trailers, you will have notice that this movie bears a bit of similarity to inception which was considered a pretty good movie. So how did Marvel perform for their version of inception? Lets break it down and find out...


Doesn't look very doctorly...

Storyline 4/5

Storyline was pretty strong in this movie. The movie took its time of introducing us to the main star alongside his background and character. Of course, as Marvel stories always go similar to other marvel origin stories, something happens and main character wants to do something about it. So somehow or other this character gets his power and faces his first big opponent and of course wins. (this is not a spoiler.. its expected okay!)

Nonetheless, the pace of the movie is fantastic and interspersed with not TOO much talking at one go. Therefore, it doesn't end up lulling u to sleep at any point of them and the things that are happening are distinct and interesting enough to not feel boring. There are also drops of good humor over the movie that makes the whole experience a enjoyable and good paced affair. There are many things that are introduced to the audience and it requires some listening and understanding, but does not become too confusing.

All in all, storyline is nothing ground breaking, but all it in all, it is told very well.

Characters 4.5/5

Character development of the main star, is fantastic. Other characters have a pretty good fleshed out background and do act in accordance to their personality. All the characters have their own believable principles and that adds a lot to helping the audience understand and reason out why things happen in this movie. The audience will be able to feel and understand better, why things are happening for the main characters (villain included) and this does add to the immersiveness of the movie.

Cinematography 4.5/5

This is clearly the draw of the movie. Not only does this movie provide exciting action scenes, there are epic airborne shots to show the hugeness of some of the characters in the marvel universe (no spoilers so you have to see it to find out) and also alot of world bending. Quite a lot of movies make the mistake of having too much action but lack of light or good focus on what is going on. This movie doesn't have that. Everything is positioned nicely and it is easy to follow what is going on.

The only little grouse i have that explains the .5 gap is that... it had a very good potential to go all out exciting action movie similar to avengers with a large scale battle but overall, there was big monster fight with tiny human kind of scenes, but no epic many on many fight scenes.

Music 4.5/5

Music and effects is quite strong in this movie and is a definitely an enhancement to the over all feel of the movie. Somewhat inceptionish also....which is a good thing.

Spectacle 5/5

There are already so many marvel movies and so many DC movies that are more or less playing around in the super powered action genre. To make your movie stand out and not be a cliched hero meets enemy and this and that happens till the heroes win, is not something easy to do. Of course if you took the comedic perception such as deadpool, you will have an easier time to stand out.

Dr Strange manages to do this also. It will still be an origin story, but the pace of the storyline and the style and direction of the movie is where it still manages to stand out. It uses the multiverse and worlds bending onto each other, mirror worlds to show that Marvel's magic scene can still be different enough from the current offerings and what we are used to. Hence, with the good paced story introducing us to the magical world and its practices, as well as the different fighting style and methods applied by people in this magical world, this movie is still able to stand out and shine.

Overall

Storyline: 4 (good paced storyline, but of course in the end it is a super hero origin and meeting his first villain story, just told slightly differently)
Character: 4.5 (character development for the main and important characters are strong, with good amount of time for most of them.)
Cinematography: 4.5 (Good fight scenes, good epic shots, good graphics and strong CGI)
Music: 4.5 (good music that enhances the movie experience)
Spectacle: 5 (as a movie set in the marvel universe, it is still told in a very good and distinct way and fights and cinematics are done very well)

Overall: 4.5 (a very clear score that states that if you are a marvel fan, you will not regret seeing this movie. If you are an action fan, you will still like this movie. The only person who does not like this movie will be a person who does not like action and the marvel franchise. Go ahead and see this movie, weekday or weeknights, it will be worth it. Also, apparently the movie was specifically made to fit the IMAX 3D screen. Hence, if you dun mind the extra cost, go ahead and watch it. For me the normal screen is still enjoyable enough)