‘Doctor Strange 2’ Doesn’t Feel Like a Marvel Movie, and That’s Good

• Disney often hires talented directors to make Marvel films, only to hinder their creativity.
• Sam Raimi’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” has a clear vision that the MCU needs.
• Disney can make Marvel movies even better by trusting their directors to take risks.
• This article contains minor spoilers for “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”

I’m a big fan of Marvel movies. But when I saw Sam Raimi’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” last week, I was surprised: In so many ways, the “Doctor Strange” sequel feels less like a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie and more like a Raimi movie.

It’s rare that a Marvel movie ever feels like it didn’t come off an assembly line; no matter the director and no matter the movie, nearly every MCU film looks and feels the same. And while this has earned Disney mountains of cash, it’s also made a massive share of its cinematic universe forgettable.

The best MCU films are the ones that let their directors direct and take risks. If Disney wants its films to be remembered as more than identical CGI smoothies, they need to have more faith in the directors making them.

Marvel movies follow strict and bland formulas

What do the majority of Marvel movies have in common?

Forgettable villains, for one. Most Marvel villains are little more than hulking masses of CGI and “control the world” cliches. For every Killmonger, there are five General Dreykovs, and ten Kros. (Remember them? Probably not.)

And let’s not forget the “shaky cam” fight scenes. For an action movie series, Marvel hates actually showing you the action — nearly every close combat scene is a dizzying rollercoaster of camera cuts and zooms. The fights you can actually see are filled with weightless special effects. Getting hit with one of Iron Man’s lasers often appears to have as much impact as getting hit with a velvet pillow.

Some of Marvel’s own directors have been open about their frustrations, too. Edgar Wright famously left “Ant-Man” after he said Marvel executives rewrote his entire script without his input. Kenneth Branagh, director of “Thor,” said that Marvel tried to digitally edit his camerawork to make it plainer. Even Scott Derrickson, who directed the first “Doctor Strange” movie, walked away from this very sequel over “creative differences.”

And that’s in addition to Marvel’s “previs” projects, where the studio’s CGI editors sometimes design scenes years before films come out, often before they’ve even picked a director. A major exception to this is James Gunn, director of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise, who said in a February 2021 tweet that every bit of previs work was based on his own storyboards.

“It should be made clear that although some Marvel directors use previs to design the action sequences others use it as a tool in designing their own,” Gunn tweeted. “On both ‘Guardians’ films the previs was fully built off of my personal storyboards. Every frame of film was designed by me.”

While Gunn is outspoken about having ownership over the Marvel films he’s helmed — and tweets frequently about his self-drawn storyboards — he seems more like the exception that proves the rule. And if a movie’s most important scenes are made before some directors have a chance to look at them, how can those directors possibly have any real artistic impact?

 

 

The Third Floor/Disney/Marvel

Disney doesn’t like directors to break from its pre-approved standards and practices. And that’s what makes Raimi’s “Multiverse of Madness” so refreshing.

‘Multiverse of Madness’ is wild and unique, like the best films are

Aside from his previous run on the pre-MCU “Spider-Man” movies starring Tobey Maguire, Raimi is best known for the “Evil Dead” franchise, a series of cult classic horror movies. These movies were filled to the brim with rotting skeletons and over-the-top violence — all traits that Raimi would keep for his next films.

Let’s be clear: “Multiverse of Madness” is not as weird as “Evil Dead.” But with its wild dutch angles, snickering demons from Hell, and mass amounts of gruesome body horror, it’s very clearly a Raimi joint.

 

 

Marvel Studios

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a Marvel movie with such clear directorial influences. And while I loved these Raimi-esque flourishes, they’ve proved controversial among film critics.

Insider’s own entertainment correspondent Kirsten Acuna wrote in her review that the movie feels “a bit disjointed as it juggles being a horror movie, an origin story for America Chavez, and a story of growth and closure for Stephen Strange, who finally learns it doesn’t always pay to be arrogant.” Taking that a step further, Todd Gilchrist from the A.V. Club wrote that Disney “over-catered” to Raimi by letting his style run rampant.

But that’s short-sighted. I’d rather have unique messes than sterilized scripts.

Think back to Raimi’s “Spider-Man” movies, and their most iconic scenes: the wild cage-fight with Macho Man, the Green Goblin’s howling laughter as he fried civilians into cheesy early-CGI skeletons. Even the infamous emo Peter Parker in the third film was fun and memorable — more so than the comedy from nearly any subsequent MCU film.

Marvel movies are better when you can feel the director’s influence

The best parts of any Marvel Cinematic Universe movie are the parts that clearly come from a dedicated and creative directing team, not a studio executive. These include:

• The crisp and visceral fight scenes in Destin Daniel Cretton’s “Shang-Chi” and Chloé Zhao’s “Eternals”
• The “Ferris Bueller”-esque teen comedy in Jon Watts’ “Spider-Man” trilogy
• The depictions of diasporas and family conflict in Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther”
• The humor and banger soundtracks in James Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” films

 

 

Marvel/Disney

In an interview with Empire, “Eternals” director Chloé Zhao blamed her film’s mixed reviews on the “merge” between her filmmaking style and Marvel’s. She felt that trying to bridge the gap between her style and “the world of Marvel” just made fans “uncomfortable.” And it’s unfortunate, because the best parts of “Eternals” — the glittering aesthetics, the intimate character relationships, the clear-but-exciting action scenes — all had Zhao’s mark on them. “Eternals” could have been even better if it weren’t trying to straddle two styles at once, if Zhao had been given free reign to make the movie her own.

Sure, keeping to a standard visual and storytelling script every time can make you a lot of money. But embracing a director’s vision can lead to amazing art — and trust me, audiences will appreciate that vision just as much if you let them.

Again, there are few Marvel films that I dislike. But there are also few that conjure up strong memories. I want to see the unique and memorable films that Marvel’s talented directors can create, even if it means some misses along the way.

I’d much rather have a rich, creative, and riskier MCU with higher highs (and maybe even lower lows!), than one where the same formula is pumped out three times per year.