my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » Film Handlers' Movie Reviews   » Doctor Strange

Author Topic: Doctor Strange Stu Jamieson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 524 From: Buccan, Qld, Australia Registered: Jan 2008 posted 10-29-2016 06:51 AM                     Doctor Strange seems to do its damnedest to make you dislike it. It's about yet another rich, narcissistic, egotistical twat whose circumstance dictates a seachange to superheroism. It is heavily styled along the lines of Christopher Nolan's Inception but lacks his clever script to make the minutiae work. There are puzzling continuity errors - did nobody proof watch this movie? Equally puzzling are some of the action scenes which are extremely difficult to follow. Other scenes seem clunkily truncated - no doubt to be later expanded upon in a bluray extended edition. Strange seems to go from mystic atheist to devout cultist to defeating an intergalactic multidimensional villain in the space of, oh, 1 hour and 55 minutes. And it even includes the dreadful clichés, "forget everything you think you know" and "it's complicated". Ugh! But in spite of itself, Dr Strange remains cracking fun. Its ideas of sorcery and the magics held therein take Marvel films in a different direction yet still dovetails with the existing cinematic canon in interesting and comedic ways. And these new CGI spells allow for some compelling effects and some thrilling interactions when it comes to combat. The film is also aided immensely by it's cast. Benedict Cumberbatch can do no wrong at the moment and this role won't spoil his winning streak. His performance here being more at the Khan end of his range than Alan Turing. Similarly with Tilda Swinton, who also never fails to impress, as an ancient mystical master reminiscent of The Last Airbender. Her performance is a delightful mixture of sass, cheek, mystery and wisdom. Chiwetel Ejiofor seems to be reprising his role as The Operative from Joss Whedon's Serenity. Indeed, he seems to be the exact same character, perhaps in a parallel universe. But these reflections of a former great role for him are fun to watch even if they are unintentional - and I'm not sure that they are. Rachel McAdams, sadly, does little more than look pretty which, admittedly, she excels at. And Mads Mikkelson only need stare coldly at the camera and mumble to be worthy of watching. One day he'll get a leading role in Hollywood instead of being the villain. One day. Although Doctor Strange can't help but be a disappointment, just thinking of what it could have been - and it could have been two much better movies - it remains a great big bag of fun regardless. Naturally, there'll be more. 7.5 out of 10.  |  IP: Logged Sam Graham AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues. Posts: 1431 From: Waukee, IA Registered: Dec 2004 posted 11-06-2016 06:55 PM                        CINEMA: Cinemark Movies 12, Ames, IA AUDITORIUM: 1 PRESENTATION: Cinemark by Barco digital PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: None *cool* RATING: Two and one half stars (out of four) THE PLOT: A reckless distracted driver crashes. Wackiness ensues. It's a fun couple of hours and worth the bother, but it feels like it should be waaay more substantial. The thing I kept thinking throughout was "Man, just think what Guillermo del Toro could have done with this."  |  IP: Logged Aron Toplitsky Expert Film Handler Posts: 113 From: Gardena, CA, USA Registered: May 2012 posted 11-08-2016 11:42 PM                     CINEMA: AMC Del Amo 18 Torrance, CA AUDITORIUM: 10 PRESENTATION: Dolby Cinema SHOWTIME: Today @ 12:20PM PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Seven minutes past start time and presentation hadn't started, so I got up to let staff know. Sever was rebooted twice and never came back up. Showing was cancelled.  |  IP: Logged Jonathan Goeldner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1360 From: Washington, District of Columbia Registered: Jun 2008 posted 11-12-2016 10:58 PM                     I saw this in IMAX-laser (3D) - and my eyes and jaw were on the floor -with close to an hour's worth of scenes, opening up to 1.90 AR - what an outstanding presentation! and a great story as well.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.