The Marvel films are now “largely indistinguishable dollops of digital gloop”, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph, but if you like watching a load of branded characters “wisecrack, squabble and mope while pretending to fly around and shoot fireballs”, this film should hit the spot. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Doctor Strange, a surgeon-turned-sorcerer who first turned up in the franchise in 2016. In this instalment, he gets into a scrap with Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen), an embittered witch who is using a book of evil spells to wreak havoc. One of the film’s main points of interest is that it’s directed by Sam Raimi, the maestro behind the Evil Dead trilogy and the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies; but although there are trademark Raimi flourishes – including “much demonic wailing” – he has stuck to the franchise’s “fussily restrictive rule set”. The result is a superficial film made in Marvel’s ubiquitous “house style, with Raimi-flavouring sprinkled on top”.
Well, I rather enjoyed the film, said Libby Purves in the Daily Mail. Yes, it’s “Marvel on amphetamines”, with “cultural references from every century, religion and Saturday matinee cliché” crammed in, but it’s also “massively entertaining” – even if, like me, “you gave up superhero movies 50 years ago”.
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