Stranger Things 4 Part 1 (2022) Review

SPOILERS AHEAD

So Stranger Things 4 is finally out now, at least the first part is. It’s been a while since we’ve seen our favourite group of troublemakers and the adventures they go on. I’m happy that they’re finally back and I can’t wait to see where we go in the future, as this is basically the beginning of the end. This first 3/4s of the season establish and reveal so much about the world and about the history of of what has happened. The season isn’t over yet so when Part 2 is released I will do a full season review with everything about the characters and arcs and all that stuff. We’re getting close to the end but we’re not there yet so the arcs aren’t finished and still have a ways to go. I will still talk about the stuff that I liked or disliked about the season so far. There will be spoilers here so if you don’t want anything spoiled than go watch it and come back. But first, here are my thoughts and impressions after watching each episode.

Chapter 1: The Hellfire Club

HOLY SHIT WHAT AN EPISODE INTRO ! Give a different view of what happened in the past between Dr. Brenner and Eleven. Just wow. It really gives a re-contextualized look at what eleven has done in the past in the lab. Interesting opening and introduction to the characters. Interesting to see where the characters are now in their lives in high school. A lot more cinematic and more creative in the editing between locations and characters. A good example of this is the editing between the hellfire club scene and the basketball championship scene. Also the parallels between the sinclair shots is great. Doing a lot this season to separate the characters again (with Lucas trying to be popular and Dustin, Mike, and Erica missing the game). Does a good job of creating tension with figuring out if certain things are real or not. The tension mostly comes from the Chrissy scenes. And Holy Shit that ending ! Over-all for a first episode its good, not the best of the series but to me my favourite parts are the beginning and the ending. The most interesting stuff happened in those parts. So far I find that my interest in the series usually gets more as the season goes on as that’s when everything hits the fan. It’s going to be interesting to see how this psychic creature will affect the series in the coming episodes. I already can’t wait until the part of the season where the characters all come together to figure out and stop what is going on. So far good use of cliff hanger endings

Chapter 2: Vecna’s Curse

Interesting intro, showing what happened to hopper and how he survived. We continue to see this throughout the episode, getting to see where Hopper has been and where one group of characters are going to be. This episode was better, we get to see Mike and Eleven back together, with third wheel will. We get the group of Dustin, Max, Robin, and Steve together doing what they’re doing. Getting the first view of the monster for this season, and a little of the story surrounding it. The dungeons and dragons monster inspiration. Something that we have kinda seen before and more from last episode with showing more of this emotional murder mode that Eleven gets into. We get more of the main two storylines going forward and the likely eventual clash between Dustin’s group with Eddie, and Lucas’ basketball group. As well as another victim of Vecna’s curse. Overall an episode I like more than the first, less teen drama and more of the stuff that I like from this show. Mike is a lot less of a prick so far and it’ll be interesting to see where that storyline goes in the future. Also our first view of the upside down this season. 

Chapter 3: The Monster and the superhero

WHAT AN EPISODE. Things are starting to come together for the characters. MAX IS THE NEXT TARGET AAAAHHH. The possibility of the return of Eleven’s powers, the coming of the clash between the jocks with lucas and the “freaks” with eddie and dustin. Lucas having to reconcile his two lives along with all the other stuff going on. This episode is great and gives us more to look forward too in the future. I can’t wait to see where we go from here.

Chapter 4: Dear Billy

WHAT AN EPISODE……..AGAIN! This episode was intense, crazy, and the OH SHIT episode. The episode where things go downhill in the first half of the season. THINGS ARE GETTING REAL. My god this was Max’s episode. So incredible. One of the most pulse pounding episodes so far. I was internally screaming at the end here just my god. We got things going wrong with the California crew with probably a military attack, we got things going wrong with the Russia/Alaska crew, and then of course we got the full view of the upside down with Max and her struggle against Vecna. Incredible episode with a relatively feel good ending. 

Chapter 5: The Nina Project

Another great episode. We’re seeing more interaction of the stories such as Jason’s storyline with Eddie intersecting with Vecna. Eleven seeing DOCTOR BRENNER ALIVE AGAIN and helping her to restore her powers. It’s interesting how they’re making her go through her mind and memories to gain her powers back, which should be useful with Vecna due to going after grief and guilt.  Again going to be interesting going forward.

Chapter 6: The Dive

HOLY SHIT! Another pretty good episode. More of Eleven’s training arc, the noose around Hawkins tightens ever more so now with the kids being hunted by the public due to Jason galvanizing the populace to go after Eddie. It’s getting bigger and bigger. 

Chapter 7: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab

HOLY CRAP ! What a way to end this part of the season! An incredible episode where the separate storylines have officially merged together. Along with the biggest reveal of the season and bringing the flashbacks back to the origins of the series itself. As well as THE BIGGEST REVEAL thus far. Insane episode showing just who Vecna is and just how powerful he and Eleven are and will be again. We also find out what Vecna is doing and why he is doing it. We also get some cool scenes showing what the different physics are like for the Upside Down. But I can’t wait to see where this goes forward, and what Vecna’s plans are for Nancy and why he revealed everything to her. It’s a good place to do a season break as it answers questions that we have had since the very beginning, but also leave more for the end of the season, and even the end of the series. This is an episode full of Holy Shit moments. We got that flashback reveal, we got Hopper and the Russians fighting a Demogorgon (it’s been  a while since we’ve seen you), we got a full CG Demogorgon slaughtering a bunch of people. Like it was crazy seeing just what a Demogorgon can do. Just an over-all incredible episode.

As you can see, I’ve been enjoying this season. It really brings it up to another level and makes everything much bigger now. It’s a much more cinematic season, a lot more stuff is going on and happens than has happened in the past. More of the town is involved, the military, cross-country and even in Russia. The world of this story continues to get bigger and bigger and it’ll be interesting to see just how big it’s going to get in the future. It’s bigger even in what we see of the upside down. We see a lot more of that dimension than we’ve seen in past seasons. With multiple characters going there for extended periods of time in the wide open reaches of the dimension, as well as people in their mind going there. We also get a lot more action this time around. We get a bit more stuff outside of power scenes and being chased by vans, or the action of last season. Like we got the scene at the byers California home, and the plane scene that really shows how they’re experimenting with the show and with what they can do. Which is going to be good for the final season as it feels like that’s going to be something big and epic. This season feels more psychological horror based than in the past. So much of the horror this season has been in the minds of the characters that are hunted by Vecna. A lot less of the more overt body horror of the last season. It also ups the ante of the dread felt by the characters as this isn’t just another example of having to close a gate or stop a monster. This is a monster they have no chance of fighting at the moment, especially since there are a lot more gates and a much more dangerous monster. The music so far this season is incredible as always, and the soundtrack is great again as well. 

I have really been enjoying the characters this season. Mike is a lot less of a prick than he’s been in the past, especially last season. He still has his moments but he still cares about eleven even after knowing that she’s been lying to him this whole time. He can still be an asshole but he almost always immediately regrets it and apologizes to people. Johnathan and Nancy have an interesting arc showing how important communication is in a relationship. And how Nancy and Steve are kind of rekindling their relationship together a bit.  Max and Lucas have an interesting arc about communication and the truth that almost costs Max her life. Lucas is really interesting as for the first half he’s caught between two halves, he wants to be popular and to not be bullied anymore, but he also wants his friends. At the moment he has chosen his friends that he has basically gone to war with, but these two sides are going to clash sooner rather than later. The alaska crew is on an interesting arc, it’s not finished yet so I can’t say more about it. Same with Will as his arc is tied to Mike and Eleven’s and we definitely aren’t at the end of that yet either. Eleven’s arc is really interesting as it’s forcing her to confront her past to get her powers back and maybe be even stronger. She thinks of herself as a monster, but its about her learning about her past truths and that she is both right and wrong. I won’t elaborate more as it’s not completely over yet. I can say they learned from the second season about having Eleven go on an arc about becoming more powerful and accepting of herself. 

I like the new characters introduced, Especially Argyle and Eddie. Both are fun characters and bring a lot of the comedic relief in the show, which is needed due to how intense it can be at times. The friendly orderly from Eleven’s flashbacks is an interesting character, showing how hard it is to truly find someone to trust in this system. He is interesting in the first few times we see him, but gives us some of the biggest Oh Shit moments in chapter 7. The returning side characters are really good this season, especially a surprising return of someone we haven’t seen in a while, and a different side to him than we were used to seeing the last time we saw him. 

Some issues I have with the season so far are that Will right now feels like a bit of an afterthought. He’s around for the ride but his arc is so tied to the Mike and Eleven arc that he doesn’t get to do much this season. Although his Arc does tie into some of the over-all themes of this season. I guess it means he’s getting a bit of a break from being so tied to the upside down in the past. Although I’m surprised given how popular he’s been the past couple seasons. Another issue is how at this point the formula of the show is kind of now in the open and we’re more aware of it now than we have in the past. Like now we gotta separate someone of everyone else to go off somewhere else to do something, and its Eleven again like in season 2. Although it’s handled better here than it was in season 2 and it felt like she was missing from the show for so much of that season. Whereas here her arc and what she is going through is a lot more integral to what is happening in Hawkins and is a part of the major storyline over-all, as well as the over-all themes of this season. I’m not sure how I feel about the Russia and Alaska stuff yet and what it does for the characters, as it’s not just over yet. Also the affects are mostly pretty good, like the upside down and Vecna look great, but some of the CG over-all is kind of iffy. Especially the de-aging this season as that can be a little uncanny valley sometimes. 

I would say the themes of this season so far are that you have to face and confront the truth, even if you don’t like it and could affect a lot. So many of the arcs this season are about characters confronting and admitting the truth about themselves and their feelings. Pretty much all the character arc are about them not being truthful to themselves, to others, or even to their own psyche. If we go even further, the truth of what is happening, and event he truth of what has happened all these years to the town. The next few episodes are going to be interesting seeing these truths come to light. 

Over-all this is a great season so far. It’s intense, funny, scary at times, and over-all an enjoyable ride. I can’t wait for the next episodes to finish out the season. 

Moon Knight (2022) Review

So I finally finished watching Moon Knight. Over-all this was another great Marvel Disney + series. It’s the most separate series from the rest of the MCU. We only have a few different mentions of MCU stuff but other than that it’s basically the first separate series from the rest of the MCU. No characters from other areas of the MCU pop up, it’s a little refreshing to be honest. There will be spoilers in this review as the show has been over for a couple weeks now, and people The show stars Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector/Steven Grant, Ethan Hawk as Arthur Harrow, May Calamawy as Layla El-Faouly, and F. Murray Abraham as Khonshu. The show tells the story of Steven Grant and Marc Spector and their journey to figure out what is going on between themselves as they try to stop Arthur Harrow from releasing the inprisioned  Egyptian god Ammit, who wants to judge the people of the world on whether they are worthy of living or not. The story the show told is really interesting as it’s both the end of Marc’s time as Moon Knight, but also the origin story for Moon Knight. The way the show tells this story is really good as it keeps the mystery going just long enough to keep it interesting but also to keep it moving. To see this, here are my thoughts of each episode written after I watched them.

Episode 1: The Goldfish Problem

 A pretty good introductory episode. Introducing us to most of the characters and the first inklings of whats happening. This first episode introduces us to Steven Grant, a guy who works at a museum gift shop with a penchant for the ennead, the Egyptian pantheon of gods. It takes a little time to introduce us to him and his routine and showing that there’s something going on with Steven. Eventually it throughs us and the character right into the fire with him waking up from “blackouts” in the middle of some bad situations. That scene in the village and the subsequent chase scene were really cool and an interesting way to introduce the character into the wider world he is a part of. Everyone gives a great performance in this episode. The music is pretty good and the effects are good for the most part. I like the slow build to the ending with the first view of the suit and the slow introduction of Marc and Khonshu. This is a good start to the series. 

Episode 2: Summon the Suit

 A good continuation from the last episode. We get introduced to more of the world with seeing Mark’s wife Layla. We get more information about Marc and his relationship with Khonshu, as well as Harlow’s shtick and plan. It’s pretty interesting seeing just how many people are under his spell and I can really see why. Except for the whole able to kill a person with a touch thing. Classic change the world death cult leader stuff. I like that we get to see more of Khonshu and Mark in this episode. We get an idea of the limitations the gods of egypt at least have without an avatar or vessel. We get to see more action this episode, it’s pretty good and creative. It’s interesting how they make this pantheon fully mystical/magical with magic weapons and invisible beings that only avatars or such can interact with and see. Like the fight between Steven and the Jackal is pretty fun and full on like Supernatural with most of it being Steven fighting a to everyone else invisible enemy. The Mr. Knight suit looks incredible in live-action and is very comic accurate. I like the suit summoning stuff and it makes me want a full on tofu style moon knight show, even though this already is technically a tokusatsu show. The music continues to be great, really liking the Moon Knight theme. Over-all a good continuation of the show.

Episode 3: The Friendly Type

Another great episode. We see more of this side of the world with the avatars of the other gods in Egypt as well as the first mention of the wider MCU world with the mention of Madripour. It’s the first time we get a full episode with mostly Marc in it, we get to see from his perspective what losing control of the body is like, as well as the first inkling of another personality in the body. Some good action in this episode as well as a kinda emotional scene with the imprisoining of Khonshu. We also get to see more of Harrow’s abilities as a manipulator and knowledge. We also get to find out more about his past, and a little bit about his past with Khonshu. It also confirms the damage that he claims Khonshu did in the time he was an Avatar of the god. Over-all a good episode. 

Episode 4: The Tomb

Wow, another great episode. This was a great classic adventure episode. Taking cues from classic adventure movies such as Indiana Jones and The Mummy. This episode features some stunning cinematography, set design, and great performances. We get more about the past between Marc and Layla, as well as the truth between the two finally coming out. The last 13 minutes of this episode is crazy. The Shot of Marc falling into the water is some straight up art-film level stuff. The part in what I guess is the afterlife in the asylum making us second guess what is happening is great stuff. Plus the reveal at the end is a great moment. We even get some hints at another personality that is just under the surface after Steven is freed. A great episode over-all

Episode 5: Asylum 

My goodness, I know I’ve said this a lot but this was an amazing episode. The most emotional episode of the series so far. Just an incredible work. This episode gets to the heart of Steven and Marc’s relationship and reveals the truth of their history and how Steven came into being. Some incredible performances in this episode, especially from Oscar Isaac. Having to play the most emotional reveals and revelations of both Mark and Steven is just incredible. The effects are incredible, and it’s ingenious making the characters having to relive their past to move forward is a really smart move. I like having the idea of Doctor Harrow being there to force Steven and Marc into this and to help them balance their scales to get into the afterlife. And a really emotional end for Steven at the end of this too. Just sad to see him go, but he facilitated a role and has now kind of fully fulfilled it. Incredible stuff. One more episode to go, let’s hope it ends strong.

Episode 6: Gods and Monsters

AND IT ENDS STRONG. What a finale, one of the best in the marvel shows so far. A great finale to this story and a great way to establish where the character(s) are going forward. A great finale with some great action, including a big Kaiju battle between Amit and Khonshu. A great ending and a mystery to go forward with the realization and confirmation that there is at least one other personality inside of Marc and Steven, one that has been hinted at throughout the series with the random blackouts followed by mass bodies. A great finale for all the characters, with Marc and Steven coming together and being able to switch around at will without blacking out. Seeing Layla as the avatar of Twaret was great, Harrow’s ending coming full circle with the asylum from the last episode was great. And the full reveal in the post credits scene of Jake Lockley was crazy and very well done. I can’t wait to see what they do with these characters going forward. Over-all a great finale episode to an over-all great series.

I feel like this is the first series where the length helped it, maybe it could have used a couple more episodes, I feel like it doesn’t need them though. We get enough time with the characters to establish them and their relationships and motivations well. It doesn’t feel like a longer movie, and it also doesn’t need more episodes to feel more complete like I did with most of the past Marvel shows. Admittedly I haven’t seen Hawkeye yet so I can’t judge that. But I feel like the show was paced well, moved slow enough for the relationships, but fast enough to keep it fresh and interesting. The tone of the show is great as well, a bit more of a darker tone than we’ve seen in the past, which fits for the character, the subject matter, and where the character will appear in the future.

The characters and performances are all amazing. Everyone does and incredible job with the material and likely had a lot of fun with what they got to do in this show. 

Oscar Isaac is a stand-out in this show with what he gets to do with Marc and Steven. Each character is given different traits and quirks to separate them from each other and Oscar is incredible as both. I can only imagine how hard it would be to play multiple characters like this switching between each other as many times as they do. Even the character introduced in the mid-credits scene felt different from the others. Even playing with how uncomfortable he was when Khonshu was taking over his body during the court scene was impressive and funny. The character arcs he goes on in this show are great too. I think it was a smart move to have Steven be discovering this stuff in the early half of the season as he serves as the audience surrogate, learning about this new world he’s in while also having more knowledge of the situations they find theirselves in than Marc does. They have a really good arc in this show, learning to come to terms with their past and accepting the truths of their lives.  I even like the idea that in The Tomb they have an easter egg for where Steven’s name comes from before it’s fully revealed in The Asylum. I like how through Steven, Marc learns to become more honest and truthful and to be able to forgive himself for his actions int he past. While Steven is able to become more confident in himself and his abilities through Marc. It’s going to be interesting to see where the characters move going forward with the reveal of Jake Lockley, the secret third personality, being Khonshus new avatar takes them in the future. 

May Calamawy was great as Layla as well. She did a great job with what she was given and also got some moments to have some fun with the role. She is a badass character who comes to learn the truth behind her relationship with Marc, as well as learning the truth about Marc with Steven and even a bit of seeing Lockley in action. Her character arc was pretty good, and she has really good chemistry with Oscar in both roles he plays. 

Ethan Hawke was great as Arthur Harrow. In both ways he plays him he does a very good job as him. His turn as Harrow in Arthur form was really good as this cult of personality cult leader. You can really believe and buy what he is saying, especially with how they show the cult he leads being a “better” way of life. But like all cult leaders, there’s a darkness waiting underneath of the pain that Khonshu caused him when he was his avatar. His turn as Doctor Harrow is also really good, as a doctor that does seem to care about his patients and wants them to succeed, even though we don’t exactly get an answer as to what is happening in that realm. 

Everyone else did a great job as well in their roles. They played their roles well and brought life to them.  F. Murray Abraham as Khonshu was great, his voice fit the character very well and had the right amount of power, anger, and sass to it. 

The technical aspects of the show were great as well. I really liked the way they depict the blackouts for the characters, and how they depict when another personality/character takes over the body. The cinematography was incredible in this show. Very colour and well framed and brought a sense of style to the show that we don’t really see in the MCU as much. The grading of the show is great, not drab and muted like it used to be in a lot of marvel films. The effects are all pretty good in the show, most working well if maybe a little iffy at times. Over-all they’re great. A stand-out moment of affects was when Khonshu and Mr. Knight were turning the sky backwards in time to see the constellation on a specific night. Although this raises the question of when are these big visual events going to be brought up in the future. I mean there’s this moment, that everyone saw, than there’s the moment of Arishem coming to earth in The Eternals, to the multiverse stuff in Spider-Man (unless the spell also made the world forget about all that stuff). 

The gods shown in the show all look good with how different their designs are, the underworld stuff looks great. I thought it was really interesting how they’ve now brought up something from the comics in that the gods of the different pantheons all work very differently. The ennead Egyptian gods are all very mystical in nature and need avatars to have their power to work in the physical world, while the gods of Asgard are very physical and exist in the physical world. The Moon Knight costume stuff looks great too. The costuming, props, and set design are all great as well. I was a little hesitant at first with the main moon knight costume, but I’ve come around to it. I like how it does have a bit of ceremonial armour to it, while also having the bandages to look like a mummy. While the Mr. Knight costume is so good looking. A great adaptation of the suits from the comics, also I can’t wait for the moon knight marvel legends to come out even if we have to wait till next year to get them. If everything was on green screen than they did a great job making everything look real and like an actual set. The music from this show is incredible as well. Great amounts of sad and quiet moments, as well as the big epic moments. I really like the epic music motif of the main Moon Knight theme. 

I know some people out there may be a little perturbed by what I’m about to say, not everyone but some people will be. This is the most toku a marvel show has been. A lot of the costume’s in the past have had a lot of people compare them to power rangers and kamen rider type costumes which I’ve seen people be mad at. To me this show brings those comparisons to the forefront. To do a bit of education to people, toku is short for tokusatsu, which is basically the Japanese word for live action special effects. So yes Moon Knight and all of Marvel is technically tokusatsu. It’s a discussion that I’ve seen people have lately on what does took mean, yes it’s tokusatsu as the base meaning of the word describes a majority of media out there. So a lot of people have been discussing what makes toku, well toku. To me the short version of the word toku is the format/genre of the shows. I feel this way as toku shows and movies to me feel different than live action superhero shows and movies from elsewhere. To me Kamen Rider and let’s say the Marvel shows are both live-action super hero shows, but they feel different enough in make, story, and character wise. Toku isn’t even Japan specific either as there a number of these types of shows being produced around the world, including here in North America with Power Rangers. Now i got a little distracted there, and the reason for that is I feel like Moon Knight is the closest that Marvel has come to making a straight up toku series. It’s got a main hero that can say a phrase to summon a suit to transform into a super hero, it’s got a hero with multiple forms, the hero has a similar power source as the villain, there’s a giant creature battle. To me these are all things that toku is. Ok I’m going to move on from this conversation now, it’s turned into a bit of a tangent. 

Over-all I really enjoyed this show, it’s a great watch and makes use of the format to it’s strengths. Moon Knight is a great watch and I can’t wait to see what happens with the character in the future. Watch it soon, 2 thumbs up!

Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness Review (2022) (spoilers after main review)

I finally saw the movie on Saturday, I say finally as it’s been pretty difficult over the past week to avoid spoilers. The movie is a blast, a real thrill ride. I will start the review soon, but there will be spoilers after the end of this review. There’s a lot that happens in it that I don’t want to spoil, but still want to talk about. I will try my best to give a lot of space between the main review and the spoilers as I feel like this is a movie you need to go into as blind as you can. 

Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular Doctor Stephen Strange, Elizabeth Olsen as The Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff, Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, Benedict Wong as Wong, Rachel McAdams as Dr. Christine Palmer, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo. The movie sees Doctor Strange diving head first into the increasingly crazy multiverse of possibilities (as seen recently in Loki, What If?, and Spider-Man No Way Home) when a seemingly regular day is interrupted by the arrival of America Chavez, a girl with myterious magical abilities to traverse the multiverse, as she is being hunted by magical monsters trying to take her powers. 

I really enjoyed the way this story was told and the way it developed. It was kind of surprising the places it went and how early it did. One thing to say about this movie is that Doctor Strange is in it more like a Mad Max style character, he’s a protagonist, but the movie isn’t really about him. It’s more about the establishment of a new hero in America Chavez and a kind of finale for the current character Arc that Wanda has been on since Wandavision.

Doctor Strange does work in this movie, even if he’s more of a vessel for the stories of the other characters. He still goes on a bit of an arc as it’s kind of about him learning and realizing that he can’t have everything, and that he has to accept that as it could result in a lot of bad things happening. We saw something a little similar with a variant of Strange in What If? with Strange Supreme. He continues to learn that there are consequences to actions. He learns from the situations of the other variants that appear in the movie. Benedict Cumberbatch does another great job as Stephen Strange. He gets a lot more to work with in this movie, with having to play multiple versions of the role, and is great in them all. 

The Scarlet Witch is great in this movie. She has changed a bit from the last time we saw her. I don’t want to say too much but it does fit in with what we saw at the end of Wandavision during the Post-Credits scene. I mean I could say some stuff as it’s clear from the marketing that she is the antagonist of the movie. Her reasonings are kind of understandable, especially with the way the Darkhold works in this multiverse. We also get to see just how powerful she is as the Scarlet Witch, even more so than we did in Wandavision. She can also be legitimately terrifying in this movie, there’s some sequences where she is actually scary. I can see people being upset with the way she goes in this movie, just judging from the way people saw her in Wandavision. Especially as for some people it could feel like a left turn, or something that is happening a little too early in this version of the character. Elizabeth Olsen is a stand-out in this movie with what she does and the versions she plays. I feel like she had some fun her with what she gets to do in it. She’s able to play every emotion the character has in this movie very well and effective. 

America Chavez is another stand-out character in this movie. They did a great job establishing her as a character and how she might work in the movies going forward. This movie kind of serves as her coming of age story, as its her learning to trust again and becoming more confident and in control of her abilities. Gomez does an incredible job with the character, bringing the right amount of pathos to it with what she’s been through at such a young age. 

Everyone else in the movie did a great job. Wong was fun as always and even had some badass moments, Mordo was good. I won’t say anything else about performances as the cameos all did great and I don’t want to spoil them. 

The music was pretty good in this movie, Danny Elfman did a great job and brings the right amount of tense scariness alongside the heroic bombastic moments. The effects are all great in this movie, they had a lot to work with and everything looks great. America’s portals all look amazing and keep that glassy look that What If? had established for people with the ability to traverse the multiverse. The multiversal travel scenes were all great, showcasing some really crazy alternate universes out there. The magic showcased in the movie is all great, a lot of creativity here with the sorcerers and their spells. Wanda’s magic looked great as well. Theres a specific battle scene that was really fun and creative with the way it used magic with music. It’s a real stand-out fight in the movie. The action in general in the movie works very well and is pretty good throughout. There’s a specific scene I will not talk about until the spoiler section as it’s another standout scene. The cinematography and direction in this movie is all great, has Sam’s hands all over it. I think it really helps the movie to have a director like Sam Raimi helm it. He brings the right amount of horror elements, as well as bonkers stuff in it. He also brings a lot of evil dead stuff to the movie, which is all great. 

Over-all Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness is a fun romp through the multiverse. See it in the theatres, if not for how good it is, do it for the cameos. 2 Thumbs Up ! Coming next, my Moon Knight review !

SPOILERS

Wow a lot happened in this movie, if you don’t want to be spoiled this is the last chance to avoid seeing anything else that happens in this movie. Also this part is gonna be full on train of thought word vomit being typed out. Which admittedly isn’t to different than my regular reviews

My goodness Sam Raimi was the best choice to direct this with how it went. Scarlet Witch is full Evil Dead, terrifying villain in this. Like the scene where she attacks Kamar-Taj and slaughters a majority of the sorcerers there, to the scene where they show why the Mirror Dimension should not be relied on even more after Spider-Man. How the Witch is able to use it against them and the scene where she emerges out of the, I think it was a gong, is insane with how she comes out. I think its interesting that Marvel let Raimi and Waldron turn Wanda into a full villain after the success of Wandavision, but I don’t think it’s the end of the character, even though it kind of feels like one. She’s fully a villain in this one, I mean she basically possess another version of herself and slaughters a lot of people and robots. I do like how its that that shows her how far she’s gone and how they end up defeating her. Showing to her that she can never truly be the mother she wants to be with what she’s done and what she was willing to do. 

Although I do wonder what the Derrickson version of the movie would have been, maybe it would have featured a character we hear about in this movie for the first time. It was cool to see Mount Wundagore for the first time in the MCM. With that we also get the first mention of the creator of the Darkhold and the Scarlet Witch, Chthon. I think one of my issues with the movie would have been solved if Chthon was more apart of the movie, a true corrupting influence over anyone who touches the darkhold. It would have helped explain why Wanda seems to have changed so much since Wandavision, other than just the influence of the Darkhold itself. Especially since it’s so corrupting in every universe, every universe version that has touched it has become worse. We get to see in live action something we only saw in What If? as well, with showing what happens when a universe has an incursion and is destroyed.

Speaking of Incursions, we get introduced to the people that discovered it, one universes version of the illuminati. This one made up of the cameos spoke of earlier. We get to see Maria Rambeau as Captain Marvel, the live-action debut of Haley Atwell as Captain Carter (also from what if), Mordo as Sorcerer Supreme, The MCM Debut of Reed Richards (here played by John Krasisnki), The return of Ansen Mount as a comic accurate Black Bolt, and the MCM debut of Charles Xavier played by the legendary return of Patrick Stewart. He’s even in a cartoon accurate yellow hovercaair too ! It was cool to see these characters here, even if they’re here to up The Witchs body count. This was an incredible scene, with Reed getting turned into Spaghetti, Carter getting cut in half (impressive considering what she survived in What If?), Rambeau being crushed by a statue, and Black Bolt going out like a chump. That was kind of sad to see such a powerful character go out the way he did, but then again the inhuman don’t matter much to the current MCM stuff. Especially after the response to the Inhumans show. Though to do multiverse stuff we can always see them come back. 

I do enjoy how a through line of the movie is that you can’t always get what you want, it’s a major part of both Stephen and Wanda’s development in this movie. We get to see 4 versions of Strange in this movie, 5 over-all in the MCM if you count Strange Supreme from What If ? and every single one has had bad luck in their relationship with Christine, every single one does not end up working out. We also see the Darkhold’s influence in how it’s corrupted at least 2 other Stranges. 

It was cool to see how Evil Dead it got, we got at least a couple scenes of this. There’s new designation of the main universe matching the comic’s 616 Witch dream walking into the illuminati universe version. Then there’s the one with the dead body of the Strange seen at the beginning of the movie, being possessed by the 616 Strange and resurrected due to having his soul in him. That was cool to see a full on Deadite looking strange doing magic with the damned guardians I guess you can say.

Now coming back to issues, dream walking introduces some (god I hate to say this) plot holes into the movie. With the Darkhold’s ability to dream walk into other versions of ourselves, why wouldn’t Wanda just do that to be with her children again. She’s doing this all for them, even though for 616 Wanda they don’t really exist at least not yet. Also another issue is that the first time we see her she is still doing a hex, which can go against her development from Wandavision. Which is why I wished that we had more of Chthon in it as than we could have a reason why she’s doing what she’s doing. Maybe Chthon is possessing her in some way and that’s why she is so dark in this movie, and why she decides to destroy all versions of the Darkhold. Maybe Chthon is trying to get the Witch to get America’s powers to be freed from the dimension it’s in. It would help with how hearing and seeing the children can kind of break her out of her spell. 

I can see where people have issues as it does feel like the character skipped some portion of their story with Wanda. But I think it’s important to remember that it can’t be too different than what Marvel wanted to do originally with this movie as they still signed off and allowed it to happen and to go the way it did. Again I don’t think that this is the last we’ll se with her, we’ve seen her survive worse and even then, multiverse baby!

Thats it for spoilers, again it’s a great movie and I can’t wait to see what happens in the future with these characters. And I hope Sam Raimi stays around for the eventual sequel. I can say that this does give us a glimpse into something that is likely coming in the future with Secret Wars, and how America could be a major part in that in some way.

Ok this is really it for spoilers, again great movie, go see it.