Doctor Strange (3D)
Director: Scott Derrickson
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Mads Mikkelsen
It's a tale of foolish pride and an inevitable fall... and the voyage of self-discovery that is as old as the ancients themselves.
Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a neurosurgeon with a world-sized ego. Then one day, he meets with a life-altering automobile accident that leaves his precious hands damaged beyond medical repair. Unable to wield a scalpel anymore, and with Western medicine offering him nothing he can use, Strange sets off for the Himalayas where he meets a centuries-old mystic known only as the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton).
What follows is a whole lot of philosophy, sorcerers, mystic spells, and weapons and bad guys (led by Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) conjured out of thin air. Oh, and a lot of disorienting time-space manipulations that will leave you, too, a tad bit unbalanced.
The visual effects, however, are simply stunning what with the sorcerers' (both good and bad) ability to bend time and space upon one another like an elaborately beautiful pop-up book whose pages can be flipped at will. Cityscapes fragmenting into whirring, shifting fractal forms, spaces that bend, splinter and multiply, and a city folding in on itself.
That being said, Cumberbatch did look a little bored (albeit totally droolworthy... even his crimson cape is in love with his cheekbones) and the storyline could do with a little more meat to sustain the two hours it takes to tell the story.
