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Doctor Strange

A weekend trip to Busselton enabled me and the wife to pop over to Orana Cinema to see Doctor Strange. This is apparently Marvel's 14th film and I reckon I'd place it mid-table - Everton or Liverpool. Pretty good but not great.

It began with a nice surprise. Mads Mikkelsen pulling a mean glower. Didn't know he was going to be in it, innit? From there, the film sets up Cumberbatch as a proper twat, a personality level that he doesn't quite shake by the end of proceedings. He's quite good here, though his accent took some time to grow on me. I think I just prefer his English one.

Parts of this film are like Inception on crack. The VFX teams (I counted more than 10 companies in
the credits) have done a fine job stretching the city-scape folding stuff. And the scene where the Ancient One sends Strange on a magical mushroom tour is nice and trippy.

Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One is top notch, flirting with winking panto one moment and almost eliciting a tear the next. Her speech to Strange in astral form is really well delivered and a little reminiscent of Roy Batty in Blade Runner:

"Death is what gives life meaning. To know your days are numbered and your time is short. You'd think after all this time I'd be ready. But look at me. Stretching one moment out into a thousand... just so that I can watch the snow."

There are a few more standout sequences. Strange brawling with Kaecilius (Mikkelsen) and thugs in one of the 'sanctums', happening upon the Cloak of Levitation. Just before the scrap, this clever exchange occurs:

"You'll die defending this world, Mister...?"
"Doctor"
"Mister Doctor?"
"It's Strange"
"Maybe, who am I to judge"

Probably the neatest trick was the time manipulation city rebuild where the protagonists and antagonists fought one another forwards in time, while part of Hong Kong was put back together....backwards in time, as it were. Easy for you to say. If you've seen it, you know what I mean.

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