Hello!
Writing up the thoughts and the analysis on Doctor Strange, which opened yesterday.
Ahhh — that was good. Marvel films really never miss.
Marvel have been taking a lot of visual risks lately. Ant-Man cleared the awkward problem of how to put a tiny world on screen.
This time the motifs were fractal geometry and the mandala. Got a bit of a shiver down the back out of it lol And it’s nominated for the Academy Award for Visual Effects!!! Incredible!!
https://theriver.jp/doctor-strange-director-presentation/
Expected the story to be on the heavy side, but there are plenty of jokes in it and none of it gets that difficult. So anyone who doesn’t know the Marvel series can still step into this world without any trouble.
The action is unbelievably cool too. Conjuring those magic circles out of sorcery and fighting with them — stylish, and it works.
And on top of all that, what a cast!! Benedict Cumberbatch! Tilda Swinton! Mads Mikkelsen!!! These three in a comic-book film — nearly in tears. I cried.
Genuinely happy that these films have earned that kind of standing. I cried.
Benedict Cumberbatch — Wikipedia
The most in-demand actor working right now. Not a day goes by without his face turning up somewhere. Plenty of people probably know him as the lead in the series Sherlock.
He says “I’m a doctor” over and over in the film, and that part is so funny lol
Here’s why. Over in Doctor Who, covered in an earlier post, Benedict Cumberbatch’s name came up for the Eleventh Doctor — and he turned it down lol
Hear the doctor business with that in mind and the joke really lands lol
The one who played the White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia. An actress with real weight to her, an Academy Award winner too.
Shaved head this time and still absolutely beautiful. The action is razor sharp as well lol
He’s been in the 007 films, Rogue One and more!
Hearing that what pushed him into studying under the Ancient One was his dead daughter, Rogue One came straight to mind.
There’s a lot to like about this film, and the best of it is how neatly the sorcery is dropped into a modern frame.
For instance, the Ancient One describes magic as something like a program that interferes with the source code the world is built from. My degree was in computer science, so that explanation sat perfectly and was a pleasure to hear.
The division of labour with the Avengers is well handled too. Something along the lines of “the Avengers deal with the physical threats, we — the sorcerers — deal with the unseen threats from other dimensions.”
And at the end the enemy is Dormammu, of course! Say Doctor Strange and this is the guy. Sealed in a time loop by Strange — almost feel sorry for him lol
Also, Dormammu! Cumberbatch apparently played part of him too!! Wonder whether that’s being set up for something. Want the next one already!
https://theriver.jp/dr-strange-cumberbatch-two-characters/
For anyone who doesn’t know: the American comics world has two big publishers. In Japan that would be Shueisha and Kodansha. In America it’s DC Comics and Marvel. American comics are also notable for how much crossover there is between completely separate titles.
The project to put the titles Marvel published on screen started with the film Iron Man, under the name Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The project is split into three phases, and at the moment everything is being driven towards an enormous story called Avengers: Infinity War, out in 2018!! Which means! MCU films have one weakness — without watching a lot of Marvel there’s no keeping up… But! Dozens of films feed into each other, so the depth on offer is out of this world!!
Now, inside the MCU there are six important items.
The six stones above.
These stones govern “SPACE, SOUL, REALITY, TIME, POWER, MIND”, and even one on its own carries enough power to destroy a planet. They are the main item used by Thanos, the villain of the Infinity War arc, which is where the MCU is headed as things stand.
How bad is that? Thanos sets all six into the Infinity Gauntlet, does the snap, and half of the entire universe dies. That bad.
An Infinity Stone turned up in Doctor Strange as well, exactly as predicted. This time it was TIME.
Sad thing is, thinking about how it ends up taken by Thanos.
And then Mordo, one of their own, turns traitor at the end, hinting that he’ll be the main villain of Doctor Strange 2. Just a guess, but letting Mads Mikkelsen leave the story like that would be a waste, so the villains are probably Dormammu incarnated in Mikkelsen’s body teamed up with Mordo.
And right at the end, Thor appears!
The third Thor film, Thor: Ragnarok, is out this year, and leaks had already confirmed Hulk and Strange joining in, so it wasn’t much of a surprise. The main villain is Hela, one of the Cosmic Beings.
But Thor’s reason for coming to see him is a mystery.
Some background. The second film ended with Loki faking his death, exiling his father Odin somewhere far away, taking Odin’s form by magic and ruling the kingdom of Asgard.
So Thor shouldn’t know that his father Odin is really his younger brother Loki, and as far as he’s concerned Loki is dead.
Yet this time Thor says he “came looking for his father, who disappeared along with Loki.”
That’s odd. Loki’s scheme has been rumbled, and Loki and Thor are working together lol
Just a guess, but:
The main villain of Thor: Ragnarok is Hela, and the likely shape of it is that she learns the Odin on Asgard is a fake and attacks. Loki sees how bad that is, drops the disguise, joins forces with Thor, and that’s how they got here.
Hope it lands lol
That’s all.
On July 24, 202…
I'll be writing…
I'll be writing…
I will be writi…
MCU初のアニメシリーズ『ホワ…
