Benedict Cumberbatch as "Doctor Strange"

[Boton]

Is it only me or did the movie lack some snippets from the trailers?

 

You guessed. I was to the Doctor today. In IMAX.

 

Besides, I found this:

 

I kept whispering to Mr. Boton:  "Hey, that's Irene Adler!  But Downey's Irene, and Downey is Iron Man, so it isn't Sherlock's Irene.  But hey!  That's Mads Mikkelson, whose brother is CAM from Sherlock...."

 

Anyway, I finally saw it Friday night.  I really liked it.  Great origin story, which is what it needed to accomplish.  Lots of good Stephen Strange whump, which of course I love.  They could have toned down the CGI a notch or two for me, but whatever.  Still good.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Yeah, coulda used a bit less of the "bigger, faster, louder" -- but what did I expect? (Even before the movie started, I noticed that all the trailers were for "BFL" movies -- so there was obviously more coming.)

[J.P.]

Some assorted remarks:

 

I would like more time for explaining things instead of CGI. More of DS's struggle, a bit more of him being an AH at the beginning. It might be because of we've been watching an original version without subtitles, but I missed the "background" of the cape. If I wouldn't know it before I… wouldn't know what it is.

 

At the beginning I wanted to shout several times - Ben, your Sherlock is showing! More showing than in any other films he did, definitely more than Ben in RL. I also suspect that some little details were indeed winks to Sherlock fans.

 

I missed some of the lines from the trailer and it seemed to change the tone of the movie. I remember the Ancient One talking about looking for DS, as if she had a plan for him, in the movie I missed that. (again might be my bad English)

 

I watched it with a colleague and we've had a very funny moment. She is a Marvel fan. During the scene where DS falls on the bus and you see an older man reading a book we looked at each other and grinned. Later we realized that she grinned because the guy was Stan Lee, and I - because the book was The Doors of Perception. :D

 

I liked that the accident occurred surprisingly. There was nothing foreboding in that scene, no dramatic music. But the accident itself was a bit too much, without all the loops and flying being necessary.

 

I also found the showdown scene a bit weak compared with the rest of the movie. I wished there would be more tension, a bit more of a surprise. Also I found Dormammu a bit disappointing visually.

 

I wish that all characters in the movie would talk as clearly as Tilda. :D

 

IMAX picture was fantastic, but I noticed that the images could use some extra frames/second (as it was with the old 24/s frame rate of the old movies). The enear elements tend to jump and blur when moving fast. Other than that, I kept forgetting about the screen being there at all and about the enormous size of Ben's head. Never seen him that large before.

[Inge l-w]

Yes, dear J.P. , but Dormamu was also voiced by BC! It was a really apocalyptic scene and I couldn't help giggling, because the dialog had to be pre-recorded or something.

[J.P.]

I wish I knew that beforehand, somehow I didn't recognize the voice.

Makes it an internal dialogue happening in one head.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I didn't know that either.

 

According to the Dormammu page on Wikipedia, BC didn't just do the voice, it was a mo-cap performance. The DVD extras should be interesting!

[J.P.]

Okay, one more: the actual sacrifice DS makes at the end to save the Earth is much too dilluted.

They cannot decide if the scene is funny or dramatic.

 

He's got killed for thousands of times, it must have been painful!

[Boton]

Okay, one more: the actual sacrifice DS makes at the end to save the Earth is much too dilluted.

They cannot decide if the scene is funny or dramatic.

 

He's got killed for thousands of times, it must have been painful!

 

You have a good point; they did that better on Dr. Who.

 

Although, one wonders.  If someone dies repeatedly in a time loop, do they amass physical damage just like they are amassing memory, apparently?  Or do you reset with a fresh body every time.

 

Actually, when that scene happened, I asked Mr. Boton, "What, is Strange going to just bore Dormammu to death?"

 

One thing I didn't say yesterday is that I agree with the criticisms some have had on BC's American accent.  Mr. Boton thought it was fine, but I thought it was more of a "not British" accent than it was an "American" accent, if tht makes sense.  Although, at least he didn't go over the top and make it an Alabama, Texas, or Boston accent.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

His accent reminded me somewhat of Mike Roe from the show Dirty Jobs.

[Arcadia]

Is it only me or did the movie lack some snippets from the trailers?

 

You guessed. I was to the Doctor today. In IMAX.

No, it's not only you. The trailer scene where he backs into the mirror-thing, wearing his "tramp" outfit, is not in the movie ... it's been replaced with a scene where he's in his blue outfit (which looks fantastic on him, btw. ) And several pieces of dialog were rearranged from how they actually occurred in the movie. Skillfully, I might add. Rather disturbingly, you might even say......

 

Some assorted remarks:

 

I would like more time for explaining things instead of CGI. More of DS's struggle, a bit more of him being an AH at the beginning.

Same here. I have to agree with the critics that said they thought the movie was a bit rushed (although the first reviewer I read praised it for being less than two hours ... idiot! If I spend that much for a movie, it'd better be "full length!" ) But we get such a brief glimpse of his flaws before his accident that it's hard (for me) to feel he deserved the comeuppance he got. In fact, I liked him rather a lot; he wasn't just a git, he had some legitimate claim to his ego. He was smart and capable, he saved lives, and I rather admired his determination to get his life back. I found him thoughtless rather than truly arrogant, which is a common enough affliction for anyone at the top of their field and/or income bracket.  And something inside him knew he could do better; I loved his line to Christine: "It's not just about me." A little vulnerability there. Or maybe that's just Ben's natural likeability peeking through?

 

It might be because of we've been watching an original version without subtitles, but I missed the "background" of the cape. If I wouldn't know it before I… wouldn't know what it is.

Not if you saw the same version I saw! The only reason I understood what was going on with the cape was because I watched/read so many of the interviews beforehand, and was ready for what happened. And may I say that The Cloak is just the best sidekick ever? :D

 

At the beginning I wanted to shout several times - Ben, your Sherlock is showing! More showing than in any other films he did, definitely more than Ben in RL. I also suspect that some little details were indeed winks to Sherlock fans.

Really? I was rather pleased to discover that I didn't really see either Sherlock or Ben at all. Just when he said "Eminemmmmm..." :D (which I, of course, adored). Strange is a much more realistic personality than Sherlock, methinks. Almost too much so; Sherlock's quirks are part of what makes him so much fun to watch!

 

I missed some of the lines from the trailer and it seemed to change the tone of the movie. I remember the Ancient One talking about looking for DS, as if she had a plan for him, in the movie I missed that. (again might be my bad English)

It came in a different place than the trailer implied it would be in ... it was at the end, just before

she died.

I missed it too, the first time (yes, I've already seen the movie twice :D ) (First time in 3D, the 2nd time not. I'm pleased that the movie works equally well either way, but would definitely recommend springing for the 3D just for the experience. They employed the medium really well, imho.)

 

I also found the showdown scene a bit weak compared with the rest of the movie. I wished there would be more tension, a bit more of a surprise. Also I found Dormammu a bit disappointing visually.

Yeah, there was something wrong with the structure of that sequence, I agree it didn't have the dramatic impact it should have. Then again, I rather admired that in the end, Strange used his intellect, not brute force. Not as dramatic, but more satisfying for me than simply blowing the baddie to smithereens like someone I could mention. :P

 

I think part of it was the visuals in that sequence; all muddy colors (except for Strange himself) and blurry, blunted edges. Nothing sharp and threatening. If the planets had been made of shards of glass instead of balls of gloop, for example, I think both the villain and the environment would have felt more menacing.

 

I wish I knew that beforehand, somehow I didn't recognize the voice.

Makes it an internal dialogue happening in one head.

I knew it by the time I saw it the second time, and I still didn't recognize the voice! But I agree, I like the concept and think they could have made the connection more obvious to good effect.

 

Okay, one more: the actual sacrifice DS makes at the end to save the Earth is much too diluted.

They cannot decide if the scene is funny or dramatic.

 

He's got killed for thousands of times, it must have been painful!

I actually rather liked that it went from horrifying to funny, but I agree that they should have gone "purely" back to horrifying by the end of it. His character deserved that.

 

It's interesting that in a movie that deals so closely with the concept of time, that turns out to be it's biggest flaw; there's so little sense of time going by. I just read that the story is supposed to take place over the course of about a year, but to me it almost felt like it was happening in "real time", which didn't make sense for someone who needed "years study and practice" to get where he was by the end. You don't get much sense of the genuine struggle it took to get "from here to there." It blunts the drama to see everything happening so quickly; it makes it seem like Strange achieved what he did too easily.

 

I should probably mention at this point that I genuinely enjoyed the movie and thought it looked fantastic. But I've been in a very dark place (post-election depression, y'all) and I needed something to bolster my spirits ... but they played it a little too safe for that, imo. I particularly would have liked more emphasis on Strange's conflicted feelings about taking a life and how that compared with Mordo's attitude. In other words, a more sharp-edged and adult take on what it means to be a hero. "Civil War" flirted with that too, but neither film could quite bring itself to genuinely challenge the viewers' set notions on justice, revenge, etc etc. Too much to ask of a Marvel movie, perhaps, but it would have really set both of them apart as stories to be taken seriously, imo. But then, I guess that would be rather beside the point.

 

Anyway, it was a satisfactory adaptation from the p.o.v. of this long-time Dr. Strange fan. Reminded me why he was one of my favorite characters. Can't wait for more!

[Boton]

I agree that I didn't think Dr. Strange was on much of a redemption arc, if that's what they were going for.  I rather liked him as a surgeon.  Yes, he was arrogant and cock-sure, but I've always said that if I'm hiring you to hold internal parts of my body in your hands, you had better be the hottest thing on the block and be absolutely convinced of it.  That's twice as true if you are a neurosurgeon or a cardiologist or specialize in something I don't have two of.   :D

 

Maybe it's just having interviewed lots of surgeons, but the part I think we were supposed to be angry at -- the part where he wouldn't operate on am inoperable glioma (I think) because it would screw up his morbidity/mortality stats -- was immediately mitigated by the fact that he takes on cases that no one else will touch, which puts him at a far greater risk of failing.  So I respect that.  Reading MRIs at night on a dark and windy road is stupid, but it doesn't really deserve cosmic punishment by the loss of the use of your hands and your career.

 

And the cape has a back story?  Someone please explain.  I didn't get any of that at all.

[besleybean]

It's supposed to be a reference to Benedict's Sherlock coat.

[Boton]

Just the collar flip thing?  So why does it float around and seem to find him and all that stuff?

[besleybean]

Oh heck I dunno...I didn't look into it that deeply, it just made me laugh!

[Inge l-w]

I DID say somewhere here that it's now official, and we have a CloakLock! The sketches are hilarious!

[J.P.]

Oh, I have a nitpick: the bullet DS removed from the patient's skull (?) looked shiny and new. No bullets that penetrated any body part do. They hardly look like bullets at all.

[besleybean]

Damn you experts!

:lol:

[Boton]

Oh, I have a nitpick: the bullet DS removed from the patient's skull (?) looked shiny and new. No bullets that penetrated any body part do. They hardly look like bullets at all.

 

Didn't he say it was coated with something or something like that?  It certainly hadn't flattened or become at all misshapen like it would have had it been a normal bullet going through a body part,

[Inge l-w]

He DID specify the kind of hard-casing and why the metal was causing the organs to fail! Only soft-nosed bullets go all squishy. Trust the Americans to know all about rifles, revolvers, handguns and the varieties of bullets that match, at least.

[J.P.]

there is also a pairing of the Cloak and the Carpet (or Belly as someone called the Belstaff recently) :D

Cloakpet? Cloakstaff? Coatloak?

 

PS. we need a transcript :D

[Inge l-w]

Are we cross-posting, or what? It's called CloakLock!

[besleybean]

We need lives.

Ha!

[Boton]

He DID specify the kind of hard-casing and why the metal was causing the organs to fail! Only soft-nosed bullets go all squishy. Trust the Americans to know all about rifles, revolvers, handguns and the varieties of bullets that match, at least.

 

It feels squishy; is it supposed to be squishy?   :P

[J.P.]

But cloaklock doesn't make sense unless it's Cloak and Sherlock <- it has some comics too

What I mean are the two garments having their own ship.

 

More goofs:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1211837/goofs?ref_=ttawd_ql_trv_2

:P

[Boton]

 

 

During the recovery montage, it shows Dr. Strange having his bandages removed and he does not have the hardware attached to his hands. In the next scene he is discussing a procedure with a group of doctors and he does not have the hardware attached. However, the next scene we see him being wheeled into the operating room with both hands fully immobilized and hardware in place. The hardware would only be in place until the bones healed and would not be replaced for the surgery.

 

This one from JP's link above was the one that bothered me; the appearing and disappearing ex-fix hardware.  I tried to fan-wank it that they said he'd had 7 surgeries, and maybe one of them required re-breaking some bones to facilitate better healing.  But I think it was a goof, and that one really got me.