Out with the time-loop movies—in with the multiverse movies. The movie term “multiverse” is based on the theory that a network of interconnected dimensions exist in the cosmos, where numerous versions of yourself live alternative lives. As in, when you’re born in this dimension, in a myriad of other dimensions and time-spaces, other you’s simultaneously come into existence.
And you’re all connected, like the rods connecting the various particles in the well-known model of the atomic structure. It all makes up a complete you. This used to be secret knowledge available only to seers and sages and advanced kung fu masters. Now you can pay 17 bucks and get a cartoon version of it at your local movie theater.
We’ve now got a Spiderverse, as in the latest episode where three Spider-Men from different time-spaces ended up in the same dimension (thanks to Dr. Strange, by the way). Also, currently, in the indie hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” there’s multiverse action happening. And this latest addition just lazily puts it right in the title: “Multiverse of Madness.”
Speaking of madness, Mr. Horror himself, Sam Raimi, director of “The Unholy,” “Drag Me to Hell,” “Evil Dead,” “Evil Dead 2,” “The Grudge,” “The Grudge 2,” and other such uplifting fare, helms. Clearly, the studio wanted to scare the audience a little more than the usual Marvel movie. To keep them awake, I’m guessing. Big fail on Marvel’s part because I’ve never been as excruciatingly bored; I set a personal record for yawning in this “Dr. Strange.”
Doctor Strange Dreams a Dream That’s Not a Dream
Dr. Stephen Strange is one of your more obscure characters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Like other superheroes, he’s got supernormal abilities. Supernormal abilities are things that are actually latent in the human body like dormant seeds. Six supernormal abilities have now actually been proven by science.
However, Dr. Strange is the only one I can think of who actually came by his abilities in the tried-and-true manner, as in, he didn’t get bitten by some radioactive bug. He was a monastic up the Himalaya, where he developed the ability to enter other time-spaces and dimensions. It’s highly questionable whether the good doctor attained the high, high, high moral stature that provides the energy to unlock such abilities. And without that, he is, by definition a sorcerer, which means his energy comes from amassed dark forces (karma). But in the movie, he’s quite benign. In my understanding it doesn’t work that way, but okay.
More Dreams
The second movie lead, Wanda Maximoff, aka “The Scarlet Witch” (Elizabeth Olsen), who we know a little bit from other MCU movies (and the Disney+ TV series, “WandaVision”) and who specializes in “chaos magic” is quite powerful. She’s also a bit demented from grief. She’s got recurring dreams, too, about her kids dying, and the conviction that these young sons, Billy (Julian Hilliard) and Tommy (Jett Kline) are alive in another universe. Hell that hath no fury like the primal mothering instinct looking for lost boys in the multiverse; she’s perfectly happy to turn Dr. Strange into a zombie in order to locate her kids.
I could give you a more detailed synopsis, but it would do you little good. This is hands down, the most bombastic, bloated, 98-percent (bad) CGI-generated, tumultuous, explosion-rich, monster-prolific, roiling, reeling, revolving, extensive-masonry-crumbling, eyeball-confusing, carnival-like hodge-podge of imagery ever presented cinematically. And here’s the kicker: It’s so devoid of tension and boring, it produces a mild state of nausea.
Also, there are more than a few clues that there’s some satanic tomfoolery at play here. The movie poster has Dr. Strange making the horns hand sign; pentagram-ish things abound in his magic; and the all-seeing, cyclopean eye of that giant CGI octopus is highly suspect, to name a few.
