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Created Jun 12, 2022 07:03AM PST • Edited Jun 21, 2022 04:20PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Really Great 4.5

   Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is marvelicious, fully 2+ hours of Marvel deliciousness, including surprise cameos from big stars of the Marvel cinematic universe. Big Benedict Cumberbatch is the star around which this solar system revolves, in his eighth turn as Dr. Stephen Strange, a man to sorcery as Stephen Curry is to basketball. Wait, what? Doctor Strange pronounces it Steven, not Steffen. Strange.

   Doctor Strange will return.

   Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange burst on the scene just six years ago with the great origin movie Doctor Strange, then often turned up in Avengers and related movies, meaning this is only the second dedicated Doctor Strange movie. Strange, but as it says after the final post-credits scene: Doctor Strange will return.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Sir Benedict Cumberbatch’s Strange is now in the Marvel moviestar pantheon with Downey’s Stark, with this eighth turn and second dedicated installment a new icon. What’s that? He’s only a junior knight, so not yet a Sir. Due course, due course.

   He’s backed up by a huge cast that features several big names near the top, including Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch, Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Baron Mordo, Benedict Wong’s Wong and Rachel McAdams’s Dr. Christine Palmer.

   Xochitl Gomez plays a girl named America.

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

6. Female Stars Good 3.0

7. Female Costars OK 2.5

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    The great Sam Raimi brought his big-budget horror sensibilities to directing his first Doctor Strange film and hit it out of the park. Bravo!

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

    Raimi not only did a credible job with the first Spider-Man movie, he directed a perfect gem in A Simple Plan. While this is a genre film, unlike A Simple Plan, his creative eminence still shines through.

12. Play Great 4.0

    Doctor Strange is earnest to a fault, both in story terms and entertainment terms.

13. Music Great 4.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.4

17. Sex Innocent 1.5

18. Violence Brutal 2.7

19. Rudeness Profane 2.9

21. Reality

    Fantasy 4.2

    Marvel hocus-pocus aside, this big blockbuster is more interesting for its cultural content.

    • In a more coy than clever move, Disney snuck in a woke hero, a semi-feminine daughter of two moms, with the provocative name of America, leading to dialog like “Is America alright?” See what they did there?
    • The Multiverse of Madness looks like our society, yet is absent any vestige of Judeo-Christian tradition, opening the way for Marvel & Disney to work in woke shibboleths. Even the concept of witch is disconnected from how witches have been widely imagined, as Christian perversions.

    Contrasting takes from The Federalist

    • Sam Raimi’s ‘Doctor Strange 2’ Is An Anti-Woke Masterstroke
    • The Real Horror Of ‘Doctor Strange 2’ Is How It Opens A Portal To The Universe Of Wokeness

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.7

23. Biological Fantasy 5.0

24. Physical Fantasy 5.0