I’ve said before that Marvel is the
undisputed King of Cinema and DC has the animated movie market cornered. Despite
this, both companies have come out with good products in the opposite field. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight spring to mind for DC, while Marvel’s Animated
Features (MAF) series was pretty good as well. Of the eight movies, created in
colaberation with Lions Gate Entertainment, my personal favorite was Doctor Strange. Let’s get to it.
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| The only two you need to remember are Mordo,in green, and Wong, the guy on the far right. I don't think they name any of the others, at least not until after they get the axe. |
Doctor
Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme was released back in 2007. The movie opens,
not with the titular character, but with a couple of construction workers. They're horribly killed by a monster in the sewers. A few minutes later, several sorcerers appear and begin to hunt down the creature. There’s seven
or so of them, but the only ones we need to know about are Wong, an old Asian wizard,
and Mordo, a powerful battle-mage with an affinity for green. The mages use
their various powers to battle the monster, a large komodo dragon-like beast of magic. They also
use their powers to shroud the battle in illusions, normal people don’t see the
mages, and the monster appears as a tornado. They slay the beast, Wong chastises
Mordo for his reckless actions before Mordo teleports away. Wong sums up quite clearly that Mordo cares more about killing the monster than protecting the innocent. Real subtle hint about Mordo's story arc, isn't it? Before the others
follow suit, a fancy car pulls up and a bewildered Dr. Stephen Strange sees
them before they vanish again. Wong is intrigued by Strange somehow seeing
through his illusion.
We then start following Stephen.
Dr. Stephen Strange is a gifted neurosurgeon, he specializes in “hopeless”
cases. Despite his skill in healing, Dr. Strange is a pretty big jerk. He’s
only interested in A. Rich Patients, or B. have such a unique disease that the
case could be pitched to a medical journal. While it does make some sense, the
better Strange’s reputation the better the hospitals reputation, but he’s kind
of forced by his boss to perform a pro-bono consult on a young girl in a coma.
A colleague, Dr. Gena Atwater, first chastises him for being, well, an asshole,
and then shows him the patient. The little girl’s brain scan shows some weird
abnormalities, stuff that shouldn’t have progressed in the week she’s been in a
coma. Strange is dismissive of the girl, and tells the family “Sorry, can’t
help.” My bedside manner sucks, but even I would have been nicer about the
whole “daughter-might-never-wake-up” thing. The girl suddenly sits up and grabs
Stephen’s hand. He’s given a vision of a giant blazing demonic skull roaring.
The creature terrifies Dr. Strange to his very soul. He throws the girl off,
who sunk back into sleep, and ran off. While driving, he keeps seeing the
blazing skull in his mirrors. After coming out of a tunnel, he’s surrounded by
a mass of children that all seem to be in a trance. He swerves to avoid them,
loses control of his car and crashes. He wakes up several days later, and Dr.
Atwater informs him that the children weren’t real, and that in the crash, Stephen’s
hands were crushed.
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| Floating possibly Asian man. Are they common in Tibet? |
They’re rather vague on how bad the
damage is, but we can see that Strange’s hands are now constantly trembling,
and that he has trouble gripping objects for any length of time. He’s depressed
as hell, which is understandable, and spends everything he has on various
experimental procedures, none of which help. In case you’re wondering, Stephen
Strange is so vain that he refuses to even consider the prospect of teaching.
Depressed and destitute, he goes to a bridge to commit suicide. I would never
condone suicide, but I’m not going to lie, I can see why Stephen might go to
this extreme. He leaps, but is saved by Wong. Well, the astral projection of Wong.
It’s like a magic hologram. The old sorcerer tells Stephen that he needs to
travel to the Himalayas in Tibet, promising Stephen that his master, the
Ancient One, can heal his hands. Stephen goes to Atwater, they used to date in
case that wasn’t clear before now, who agrees to get him the plane ticket.
After climbing the mountainous
terrain, which is pretty amazing considering how much trouble he has with his hands,
and enters the ancient temple. He meets Wong in the flesh, as well as Mordo and
their master, The Ancient One. The Ancient One is like the Mr. Miyagi, a tiny
Asian man with a lot of strength/power and even more wisdom. Stephen is set to
work in the temple, with the promise that his hands will be healed when it is
all over. While Stephen works, Wong, Mordo, and the rest of their team go out
to battle some monsters. The team returns a short while later, but they lost
two in the fight. After an unspecified amount of time cleaning, scrubbing and
general labor, Stephen get’s depressed and attempts to leave the temple. He
walks through the snow, and is given visions of his past failures.
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| Pretty much what I picture when I think of an evil spirit, master of a Hell dimension. Yes, there's more than one of both. |
We’ve seen a few flashbacks before
this point. Here’s a general summary of the scenes. We saw that Stephen had a
younger sister, April, who he was very close with. April apparently suffered from
a brain tumor that several specialists said was inoperable. Young Stephen
wouldn’t be deterred, he swore that if April could last a few more months, he’d
be her doctor and remove the tumor. She did just that, and Stephen attempted
the operation. Unfortunately, April died on the table. While Young Stephen
grieves, the Ancient One appears in his memory and gives Stephen his wisdom.
Basically, that it wasn’t his fault that his sister died, that he needs to let
go of his grief, and move on. Stephen finally agrees and returns to the temple
to train. The Ancient One teaches Stephen some of the basics, manipulating
matter and energy, and scaring the pants off of him with a magic sword.
Wong, Mordo, and the rest go out to
stop two charging monsters that look like the unholy spawn of a Rhino and a
triceratops. The Ancient One advises that they attack one monster, then the
other, as they would need all their power to kill just one. Mordo disagrees and
breaks them into two teams. They kill the two monsters, but lose about half
their group in the battle. The Ancient One grieves for his lost students, chastises
Mordo for forgetting that their job is to protect others not slay monsters. He
forces Mordo to train Stephen, much to Mordo’s disgust. During their training
session, Stephen instinctively absorbs Mordo’s magic and throws it back at
Mordo. Mordo, enraged, lunges for the kill, but is stopped by Wong.
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| Strange has been doing magic for, like, a month, Mordo, and he's already schooling you. Can you see why the Ancient One passed over you, now? |
A short time later, Stephen, The
Ancient One, Wong, Mordo, and the few remaining students travel to the Sanctum
Sanctorum, a mystical focal point in the middle of New York. The Ancient One
tells Stephen that millennia ago a powerful demon, Dormammu, attempted to
conquer our dimension. The Ancient One beat him back, and sealed Dormammu in a separate
dimension. The Ancient One is still perplexed at how Dormammu is breaking free,
but Stephen has the answer when he sees Dormammu’s burning skull. Stephen
realizes that Dormammu is using the minds of the sleeping children to augment
his powers. The Ancient One prepares for battle, and sends Stephen and Mordo to
awaken the children. Stephen gets to work, but Mordo is up to no good. He
enters the dream of sleeping child and offers his services to Dormammu. In the
physical world, Dormammu awakes the bodies of his sleeping slaves to gather
them, while Mordo attacks Stephen. He’s saved by Wong, who was watching in
wait. Wong and Stephen return to the Sanctum, to find the Ancient One slain. By
that jerk, Mordo. The dude fell fast. Wong gives Stephen the Eye of Agamotto, a
symbol of the position of Sorcerer Supreme, and claims it is his destiny. After
this it’s a battle of magics, Dr. Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme vs. Dormammu,
Lord of the Dark Dimension. It’s a finale filled with fire and fury, watch it
and enjoy.
The movie is a somewhat darker take
on the origin story of Doctor Strange. While the dead sibling thing seems like kind
of a weak way to explain Stephen’s more…jerky behavior, the fact that she died
on his operating table does add a surprising amount of pathos for the former
surgeon. The voice acting is top notch, I especially like Jonathan Adams as the
malevolent Dormammu. The guys got a very deep, powerful voice, a perfect fit
for the evil master of the Dark Dimension. Bryce Johnson also does a good job
as Dr. Strange. He does the sorrowful parts best, but is also believable during
those rare moments of joy that Stephen feels with each of his successes. I
especially like his line in the finale, “I’m Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme!”
as he’s battling Dormammu. Overall, I’d give it a B. Not the best movie ever,
but a good first foray into a feature series for the good Doctor. I hope that
Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance next year is up to snuff. We’ll just have to
wait and see. Next time, we begin another theme week. Patriotic heroes of
Marvel and DC. It’s going to be awesome.
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http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/marvelanimated/images/5/57/Strange_Meets_Ancient_One_DSSS.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20091123002420
http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/marvelanimated/images/5/58/Mordo_Dormammu_Deal_DSSS.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20091123014216
http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/marvelanimated/images/9/96/Strange_Beats_Mordo_DSSS.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20091123020053
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