Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a 2022 American superhero horror film based on the Marvel Comics character Doctor Strange. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is intended to be the sequel to Doctor Strange (2016) and the 28th film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Sam Raimi from a script written by Jade Bartlett and Michael Waldron, and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange, alongside Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Plot
When the Multiverse-hopping traveler America Chavez is attacked by evil monsters from across dimensions, Doctor Stephen Strange goes to Wanda Maximoff (aka the Scarlet Witch) to help protect her. However when Wanda learns that Chavez’s powers may be able to reunite her with her kids Billy and Tommy, Strange and his friends flee across the Multiverse to find a way to save Chavez and defeat the Scarlet Witch.

Why It Dives into the Multiverse

 * 1) Sam Raimi shows off his excellent directing skills, akin to those he put in practice in his Spider-Man film trilogy. Not to mention, this was a step up from his previous films non Marvel related, since his films before 2022, including Paranormal Activity, can come across as either boring or just simply unbearable to watch.
 * 2) The film not only pick up what happened after mh:besttvshows:WandaVision and season one of Loki, but it also picks up what happened for a few months as well after Spider-Man: No Way Home, although it still work for people who hasn't watched the show.
 * 3) Benedict Cumberbatch played multiple roles for alternate versions of Doctor Strange in one film (Doctor Strange, Sinister Strange, Defender Strange, Zombie Defender Strange and Supreme Strange), providing that he has incredible range.
 * 4) Unique and amazing visuals effects, like the scene where Strange and Chavez enters the portal and passes through the multiverse for the first time.
 * 5) Phenomenal fight and action scenes. It perfectly make clever usage of all the individual characters' unique abilities.
 * 6) It explores the character of Chiwetel Ejiofor (Karl Mordo) as he turns to villainy and betrayal found from the comics in Doctor Strange that were set up, although he was a variant who is a member of the Illuminati as he appears for couple of scenes.
 * 7) Reed Richards (or Mr. Fantastic) is officially introduced in the movie for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, who is played by John Krasinski, thus fulfilling the fan service that heavily predicted Krasinski's first appearance in the MCU as Mr. Fantastic, and this incarnation doesn't take itself too seriously, unlike the one released 7 years before this movie.
 * 8) There's a wider variety of magic in terms of spells, color, and style in the film, leading to more unique magic combat such as 616-Strange and Sinister Strange's musical sheet fight, no doubt to alleviate some of the criticisms of the common orange sparkly style of magic previously seen in the MCU.
 * 9) Danny Elfman did a excellent job with the score.
 * 10) It introduced the horror elements in Marvel Cinematic Universe for the first time, with the 1980s-style. It makes more sense for critics and audiences when you realise Sam Raimi, famous for his horror films, directed this movie.
 * 11) Wanda is a fantastic villain, and can even be pretty scary at times.
 * 12) A darker tone than the first movie, yet it does not forget to have humor and positivity that barely feel forced to do right unlike many previous superhero movies that tried too hard to be dark & gritty, especially the films from DC.
 * 13) America Chavez is a great new character with an unique power, who use the powers to sent them in the multiverse.
 * 14) *Despite the fact that America Chavez is a lesbian in the comics, the film did not pander to the LGBT community as it only focus on the main plot and backgrounds of a long journey that Chavez and Doctor Strange had to go through to put an end to the schemes of the Scarlet Witch.
 * 15) *The concept that made America Chavez living with lesbian parents rather than making her a lesbian herself like the comics was very well executed as the childhood tragedy that happened to her parents pushed Chavez to a extension that made a amazing character development which mainly involves full control of her powers necessary to defeat the Scarlet Witch. Plus, this change was accurate to the comics, as America has two moms, Amalia and Elena Chavez who gave their lives to protect America as well as other children in a testing facility.
 * 16) *Thankfully, Disney didn't make a big deal about the LGBT part, unlike Eternals.
 * 17) *Unlike Captain Marvel, America Chavez was not written as a overpowered superheroine and a egoistical feminist that would be used as a plot device within Doctor Strange's very own movie.
 * 18) Not only does Zombie Defender Strange look nightmarish, but he casts a spell similar to the Images of Ikkon (like in Infinity War against Thanos), giving him multiple arms and making him look like a monster straight out of a movie like Insidious or Sinister (the latter of which, coincidentally, executive producer Scott Derrickson, who also directed the first film, was the director for).
 * 19) Patrick Stewart returns as Charles Xavier / Professor X, who portrayed him in 20th Century Fox's X-Men film series, as the leader of the Illuminati. Not only that, but Anson Mount returns as Blackagar Boltagon / Black Bolt, who portrayed him in ABC's Marvel's Inhumans.
 * 20) While America Chavez, Doctor Strange, and Wong had lunch together after their battle against a monster that chased Chavez, they made good and even funny references of Spider-Man, his actions, and the events that occurred in Spider-Man: No Way Home, even though it would hurt to see that Doctor Strange and Wong do not remember their friend Peter Parker anymore.
 * 21) A very exciting mid-credit scene where Strange develops a third eye and is approached by a sorcerer, Clea, who invites him to avert an incursion in the dark dimension.
 * 22) Bruce Campbell's cameo as Pizza Poppa, a vendor from an alternate universe is hilarious, as he gets a gag about Doctor Strange casting a spell to make him punch himself in the face for three weeks. In the post-credits scene, it finally stops, prompting him to manically laugh, look at the camera and shout "IT'S OVER!"

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The pacing, although well-done, can be off sometimes.
 * 2) The film is somewhat confusing for casual viewers, because everything happening here can sometimes happen way too fast and it even requires viewers to watch Disney+ shows WandaVision, Loki, and What If..? to get to know concepts about the multiverse and its countless variants of superheroes and villains.
 * 3) False advertising:
 * 4) *The teaser and multiple trailers show that Sinister Strange would be the main antagonist of the film as he ominously quoted to the main Doctor Strange, "things just got out of hand" while the Scarlet Witch confront inner struggles as she helps Doctor Strange with the multiverse issues. However, Sinister Strange only appeared in one scene near the climax and had less than twenty minutes of screen time as he got killed off by Doctor Strange after a short violent feud over the copy of the Darkhold.
 * 5) *Somewhat misleading title: Though the title indicates that this is a movie about Doctor Strange and his adventures across the multiverse, the film focuses more on subplots regarding the schemes of the Scarlet Witch, Wanda's children, and America Chavez's journey as Doctor Strange had succeeded in fixing issues within them.
 * 6) *Despite being a decently well written plot, the film could cause confusion to the audience whether it is about Doctor Strange, the Scarlet Witch, America Chavez, or their adventures within the multiverse.
 * 7) *In previous trailers, Karl Mordo was featured to be one of the main characters as a primary enemy of Doctor Strange due to his determination of stopping and killing his former friend. However, it turns out that he was not the same Karl Mordo Doctor Strange had trained and fought with in the previous film, but Mordo in this film was simply a random variant who is the member of the Illuminati that tricked and captured Doctor Strange and America Chavez. Additionally, similar to Sinister Strange, he only had less than fifteen minutes of screen time, thus wasting the opportunity to have a conflict between Doctor Strange and the main Karl Mordo.
 * 8) For some reason, possibly due to making sure the film was a success in foreign countries, America Chavez was rewritten from being a lesbian to someone having lesbian parents, although America having two moms was a thing in the comics, this however led the movie to be banned at the last minute in many countries.
 * 9) Despite being heavily anticipated, and finally being introduced in the MCU, the Illuminati were very underutilized and downgraded, in regard to their powers. To the point where some people have compared them to the "League of Super Acquaintances" from that Spongebob episode or the "Guardians of the Globe" from the TV show Invincible, due to them also being teams of heroes who were easily defeated by overpowered enemies despite their powers.
 * 10) *Additionally, several members of the Illuminati besides Professor X were very unlikeable characters as they were willingly to execute 616-Strange for the destruction 838-Strange variant (their own Doctor Strange) had done previously without even listening to 616-Strange's explanations of his own Scarlet Witch and her major threats to the Multiverse. The Illuminati, along with their Christine Palmer (the 838 variant of the main counterpart), believed that 616-Strange is the same as their variant and former teammate who accidentally destroyed a different universe in a attempt to defeat Thanos. 838-Palmer, while understandably cynical and unoptimistic about the 616-Strange and his selfless intentions to stop the Scarlet Witch, was also unlikeable for a while as she questioned 616-Strange even though he is a different variant despite having similar ends to stop conflicts.
 * 11) *Besides, Mr. Fantastic, 838-Mordo, and 838-Captain Marvel highly underestimated the Scarlet Witch as they claim that Wanda is not a multiversal threat they needed to face while stating that they can handle "[616-Strange's] little witch if she decides to dreamwalk".
 * 12) *The infamous moment when Mr. Fantastic, introduced in the movie as "The Smartest Man Alive", was dumb enough to tell Wanda about Black Bolt's powerful voice; which resulted in the latter being killed by Wanda.
 * 13) Abrupt ending: by the time Strange unlocked his third eye in the middle of the street, the movie ended.

Critical reception
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised Raimi's direction, the cinematography, visual effects, musical score, action sequences, emotional weight, and performances of the cast (especially Cumberbatch and Olsen), while criticism was aimed at its pacing and writing.

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 74%, with an average score of 6.5/10, based on 388 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness labors under the weight of the sprawling MCU, but Sam Raimi's distinctive direction casts an entertaining spell." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 65 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 82% of audience members gave it a positive score, with 69% saying they would definitely recommend it.

Don Kaye of Den of Geek gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, feeling that it would "please the legions of established fans by embracing the comic book weirdness of it all with vigor and abandon, as Sam Raimi creates possibly the MCU's most off-the-wall entry yet". He praised Raimi's directing style of the film that he regarded as "the most singularly identifiable vision of an MCU director" since James Gunn directing Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). He also praised Olsen's performance which brought a "real, palpable, heartbreaking grief to the part along with an electrifying single-mindedness" and McAdams' appearance which was "given more to do" in the film, but felt Gomez' role was "reduced to the role of exposition machine in the course of the film's events". Owen Gleiberman of Variety felt that the film was "a ride, a head trip, a CGI horror jam, a what-is-reality Marvel brainteaser and, at moments, a bit of an ordeal. It’s a somewhat engaging mess, but a mess all the same." He found Raimi's direction in a number of scenes in the film had "the companionable spirit and shifting imagistic flair he showed in the first two Spider-Man films". Leah Greenblatt from Entertainment Weekly praised Raimi's take on Doctor Strange and direction, saying the film felt like "many disparate and often deeply confusing things — comedy, camp horror, maternal drama, sustained fireball" but different from previous MCU films; Greenblatt called this experience "wildly refreshing", having been 23 films into the MCU. Deadline Hollywood 's Pete Hammond also praised Raimi's direction and storytelling, which he thought was a "successfully entertainingly" mix of "kind of dark, terrifying" storytelling with established MCU characters, and felt it was similar to his previous horror films, such as The Evil Dead (1981). Amelia Emberwing at IGN rated it a 7 out of 10 and said that there was "something about this newest chapter" of the MCU, concluding that the film was "a Sam Raimi film through and through".

Box office
As of June 15, 2022, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has grossed $398.7 million in the United States and Canada and $532.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $931.6 million dollars.

In the United States and Canada, the film earned $90 million on its opening day, which included the $36 million from Thursday previews. The preview was the second-best preview during the pandemic behind Spider-Man: No Way Home and the overall eighth-largest preview performance ever behind Avengers: Infinity War (2018), while the opening-day record was the seventh-biggest first day in industry history. In its opening weekend, the film earned $187 million, becoming the eleventh best domestic debut of all time, behind Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), the best summer debut for a Disney release during the pandemic, and Sam Raimi's best opening for a film he directed after surpassing the $151 million opening weekend record of Spider-Man 3 (2007). In its second weekend, the film earned $61 million, becoming one of the MCU's biggest second-weekend box office drops. The 67% decline was attributed by Deadline Hollywood to the "bad word of mouth" on the film and its CinemaScore grade, while EntTelligence saw more than 17% downsize of available seats for the film, resulting in a lessen showtimes which also led to the decline.

The film had the most ticket presales through Fandango since Spider-Man: No Way Home. In April 2022, Boxoffice Pro projected the film could earn between $190–210 million in the United States and Canada on its opening weekend, with a total domestic gross of $450–560 million.

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Trivia

 * Michael Giacchino was set to return for the sequel by October 2019, when Derrickson was set as director. After Raimi took over, Danny Elfman was hired as composer.
 * In April 2022, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that the film would not be released in Saudi Arabia due to the inclusion of America Chavez, a gay character, given the region's censorship of LGBTQ references. Nawaf Alsabhan, Saudi Arabia's general supervisor of cinema classification, said the film had not been banned from the country but revealed that Disney was "not willing" to grant their request of cutting "barely 12 seconds" of a scene in which Chavez refers to her "two moms". The film had been set to release in several Persian Gulf countries on May 5, before advanced tickets were removed from cinema websites in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar. Tickets were still available in the United Arab Emirates, which The Hollywood Reporter stated was an indication that the film could still be released there. IMAX Corporation also confirmed that the film would not be released in Egypt.
 * Cumberbatch was disappointed by the countries' decisions to not release the film, saying: "We've come to know from those repressive regimes that their lack of tolerance is exclusionary to people who deserve to be not only included, but celebrated for who they are and made to feel part of a society and a culture and not punished for their sexuality. It feels truly out of step with everything that we've experienced as a species, let alone where we're at globally more as a culture, but frankly, it's just even more reason why this isn't tokenism to include an LGBTQ+ community member". Deadline Hollywood reported in late April that the film was unlikely to be released in China after a newspaper box for The Epoch Times, a newspaper that opposes the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was noticed in the film's trailer. It had been submitted for review to Chinese officials by that time.
 * In mid-May, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said the situation was complicated but noted that the film was already commercially successful without a release in China.