"Multiverse of Madness" is an Enjoyable Cinematic Homage That Leaves *Something* To Be Desired.

Coming off of a string of Disney+ and theatrical releases, Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness capitalizes on multiple plot points from several of these works. These story details will be fun additions to an evolving world of Marvel storytelling post-Thanos for some fans. The leap from Disney+ content to theatrical release may feel jarring for others. The carefully crafted beats of exposition and the inciting incident are rushed or glossed over to accommodate the needs of new worldbuilding and character introduction (many times over, for multiple characters). Multiverse of Madness is far from a lackluster film. It is exciting, fresh, and poignant both in story and production. It is, however, essential to note Multiverse of Madness is the demarcation line of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Original Disney+ titles are now vital to the progression of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s cinematic releases.

Director Sam Raimi makes a comeback like a prodigal son primed for a resurrection. Raimi, the director of the acclaimed Spider-Man movies with Toby Maguire and Kirsten Dunst (you know, that upside-down kiss), directs “Multiverse of Madness” into a new phase of MCU style and nostalgia. Spider-Man: No Way Home (dir. John Watts), seeing Toby Maguire reprise his character from Raimi’s films, is already a monumental, never-before-seen homage to nostalgia, comic books, and cinema. With this wave of nostalgia, the Raimi-helmed Multiverse of Madness is primed for enthusiastic reception of Raimi’s eccentric, lively, yet gritty and grotesque style of comic book-adaptation filmmaking. A film based on a plot of alternate universes, with the intention of expanding the MCU’s genre arsenal, is an ideal project to implement such a vision.

While Multiverse of Madness is an entertaining and visually stimulating addition to the MCU, cinematically, it doesn’t do anything new. With nods to Raimi’s work, and his eccentrically entertaining style, the tone and feel of a superhero movie are set, and those genre codes are subconsciously set for the audience. Think giant-eye-popping-out-of-giant-alien-squid. Very comic-book-esque; very eccentric. Then come the nods to the horror genre, which further the range of the MCU. Visual references to The Ring, Carrie, The Exorcist, Night of the Living Dead, and more are sprinkled throughout the film and are entertaining to see in the context of Multiverse of Madness. However, it’s not new.

With recycled yet entertaining tropes comes the issue of setting up the plot. The necessity of WandaVision to the story of Multiverse of Madness cannot be overstated or overlooked. Yet, this is precisely what Multiverse of Madness does. The issue is not that the events of WandaVision play into the plot of Multiverse of Madness; the problem is that the screenplay completely glosses over the events of WandaVision to get to the main action of Multiverse of Madness. There’s no build-up or exploration of Wanda’s life since Westview or how thoroughly the Darkhold corrupted her. In fact, at the beginning of the movie, Stephen Strange says to Wanda, “I’m not here to talk about Westview.” The film would sit better and relieve the sense of “something’s missing” from the film if they would talk about Westview. An internal struggle within Wanda would have made a much more exciting addition to the story.

With these criticisms in mind, this film cannot be discussed without touching on the production difficulties that Multiverse of Madness went through. Shooting in London, during 2020 and 2021, between COVID lockdowns, navigating safe production practices amid the pandemic, and logistically negotiating all of these factors, it’s a wonder “Multiverse of Madness” finished production at all. On top of all the pandemic-related difficulties, the necessity of implementing crucial plot points and details from not only WandaVision but also What If… and even Loki meant the script for Multiverse of Madness kept changing, and changing, and changing. These changes do make the screenplay seem somewhat haphazard. Yet, it would be easy to blame some of the feelings of “I like it, but something’s not right…” on the clunkiness of the script changes. However, that’s a little unfair because the screenplay moves, remains entertaining, uses economy of story well (a film term for how one thing leads to another and becomes important later on in the story), and is a delightful addition to the MCU.

Overall, it’s clear Raimi and the cast just wanted to have a good time telling this story. The story, at its core, is nothing new. There are very old archetypes at play. However, taking a main MCU character and turning them into a villain is unique to the MCU, which is respectable as trying something new. The character of Wanda is given a disservice by not exploring her story and internal struggle thoroughly in the exposition phase of the screenplay. Still, Elizabeth Olsen gives her best performance in the MCU. And yes, that includes WandaVision.

The film would’ve benefitted and been very impactful cool if Marvel had committed to a Rated-R film to commit to the horror genre they wanted to use and come up with something new to add to the genre. People say, “it’s gory and has terrifying horror elements in it,” and “for this generation of kids, this will be the movie that scared them that they remember.” It’s not that scary. Perhaps there is a tinge of desensitization to that statement, but this film is for the horror and Raimi fans who can take a daring leap into new cinematic arenas for the MCU. Commit to horror and suspense if you’re going to do horror and suspense. This film could have easily been akin to Game of Thrones in the multiverse, with more risk-taking and attention to internal conflict. Overall, Multiverse of Madness is a daring, exciting, entertaining, and landmark addition to the MCU; It’s very rewatchable and will top many fans’ favorite MCU movies list, but it is not a perfect film.