Early on in 2004’s Spider-Man 2, the second Tobey Maguire–starring webslinger film, there’s a roughly two-minute sequence in which the top-flight comic-book blockbuster suddenly becomes a horror film. A team of hospital surgeons trying to remove the four self-aware, metallic tentacles that have been fused to scientist Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina) is suddenly assailed by said tentacles, dispatched one by one in about as gruesome and frightening a manner as a PG-13 film can get away with.
This scene was no surprise to fans of director Sam Raimi, whose first two film efforts were legendary low-budget horror films The Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 (N.B. the chainsaw-wielding surgeon in Spider-Man 2‘s horror interlude). Though Raimi had become a successful mainstream filmmaker in the intervening years, he never fully forgot his horror roots, nor the many tricks — monster-perspective shots, askew angles, visceral, fluid action sometimes verging on slapstick — that he learned in horror boot camp.
Also early in Spider-Man 2, cigar-chomping newspaperman J. Jonah Jameson (now played over two separate franchises by J. K. Simmons) struggles to name the new tentacled creature now menacing the city. When one of Jameson’s subordinates suggests “Doctor Strange,” Jameson laments, “That’s pretty good, but it’s taken.” So it’s pretty funny, though not entirely surprising, that Raimi returned to the comic-book blockbuster with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It’s even less surprising, moreover, since we got multiple hints during the production that the sequel to 2016’s Doctor Strange — and the latest entry in the ever-more-sprawling Marvel Cinematic Universe — would go in a decidedly horror-tinged direction.
There was good reason to expect much from the movie given Raimi’s history and the expansive possibilities of Strange’s character and universe. And, to be sure, there are plenty of times when Raimi’s unique sensibilities shine through. The basic story of the movie — Strange tries to protect America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), a young woman with the (erratic) ability to hop between dimensions, from the now-villainous designs of Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), who would steal America’s power and life to inhabit a reality where her nonexistent sons are real — lends itself well enough to a horror-movie setup. Wanda, whose abilities were never well-defined even by comic-book movie standards, is now essentially all-powerful; little can be done to stop her, even by the similarly mysteriously powerful Dr. Strange.
Portraying, essentially, a horror-movie monster, Olsen brings life to a previously middling character, and provides many of the movie’s most unsettling moments. Multiverse of Madness is at its best in such instances, as Raimi’s style creates tension, plays with perspective and scene transitions, and indulges in some trademark gore (a few formidable-seeming heroes get some memorably violent deaths). A battle involving dueling musical notes, as well as a delightfully campy scene involving a resurrected corpse bursting from its grave as lightning strikes in the background, stand out as well. (Also, Bruce Campbell shows up.) In these scenes, I almost forgot I was watching an MCU movie.
Almost. Because, despite Raimi’s best efforts, Multiverse of Madness fails to transcend MCU trappings. The most obvious example arises from the simple fact that the movie means less to those — me included — who did not watch the Disney+ show WandaVision, which provides the background for Wanda’s desire to “reunite” with her other-universe offspring. Wondering last year whether Marvel had peaked, I identified as a challenge for the ever-expansive Marvel universe going forward the fact that
some of its existing characters have also had additional layers of complexity added to them via shows on Disney+, Disney’s streaming service; Marvel fully intends to incorporate these developments into future movies. Although Disney+ is quite popular, this further incorporation raises the threshold of commitment required for full enjoyment and understanding of what is going on in the movies, whereas previously you “just” had to see what was in theaters.
Now, I saw this film — and Spider-Man: No Way Home — anyway, so more fool me. But in this case, the movie depended heavily on the events of a prior series I didn’t watch, and my experience suffered from it, even as I found Olsen’s performance enjoyable. Less enjoyable was Benedict Cumberbatch as Strange. Always game and competent as an actor, Cumberbatch nevertheless has little to work with aside from a vaguely identified sense of unhappiness hinging on his failure to win over Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams). And the universe-hopper America Chavez is only interesting for the occasional wordplay involving her name (at one point, a character urges America to trust her power, making me wonder about the movie’s underlying message).
As with most Marvel content, Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is not straight-up bad. It’s . . . fine, though Marvel makes it hard for a movie to stand out in either direction. In this regard, I couldn’t help but to think of another multiverse movie that came out this year. While two movies that were in production around the same time can’t always be accused of plagiarizing each other — see also, Deep Impact and Armageddon, Capote and In Cold Blood, etc. — Everything Everywhere All at Once is clearly the better of the two. Multiverse of Madness only toys with the infinite possibilities and existential implications of the multiverse, while Everything Everywhere embraces them fully, with an admirably bonkers unrestrained energy, and without any sort of formulaic or cinematic-universe obligations.
So while it was nice to have Raimi back in the director’s chair, we didn’t exactly get the return-to-form masterpiece from him that fans might have been expecting. Here’s hoping we do someday — and that he does it outside of the confines of the increasingly unwieldy, stultifying, and aimless Marvel Cinematic Universe.
And maybe with a chainsaw.