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The pleasure of director Sam Raimis trilogy ofSpider-Manfilms beginning in 2002 can be found in the bombast.
But in films as mammoth as these, the latter can only go so far.
It has also piqued audience expectations for a familiar blend of pop art and macabre intrigue.
But here, his craft has been hemmed in, gamified, leeched of color and vivacity.
The plot, as it stands, is held together with bubblegum and a prayer.
ButDoctor Stranges multiverse is neither emotionally resonant nor artistically agile enough to leave an impression.
Another transforms them into cartoon characters.
In another, theyre garish, living paint.
Instead,Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnessleft me more disenchanted than ever.
These arecorporate installmentsfor shareholders rather than, you know, actual films.
This is perhaps how we arrive at screenwriter Michael Waldrons utterly sexist conception of Wanda.
Apparently Wanda an immensely powerful witch who can bend reality only aspires to be a mom.
If theyre doing white women so dirty, how can the rest of us expect any better?
Cumberbatch is on autopilot beside her.
After all, grotesquery isnt solely about the images but what message theyre communicating.
Yet audiences have been trained to subsist on scraps of diversity, of joy, of appropriately attuned bombast.
How can it when theres no end on the other side of the bridge in sight?
