Movie: Doctor Strange

General Review
Doctor Strange isn't the best Marvel movie by far, but it's probably the most visually stunning one. Its premise of being steeped in magic, the multiverse, and otherworldly dimensions is something that hasn't yet been thoroughly explored in the MCU, so in that sense, I felt this was a welcome change of pace. I thought its strength lay mostly in its novelty as part of the bigger cinematic universe - the fact that this kind of power exists within the same realm as the rest of the Marvel heroes continuously blew my mind as I thought about it, and it effectively took up maybe 20% of my brain activity while watching, just lingering at the back of my mind and stunning it at the same time.

On a personal note, as someone who felt extremely fatigued by the Civil War movie, this was able to reinvigorate my excitement for the Marvel fandom - something I didn't really expect would happen until at least Thor 3. Still, with Marvel failing to completely address its whitewashing issue, it's hard to truly bridge the gap between how I feel about this movie as a movie (I really, really enjoyed it), and how I feel about this movie in context of what it "canonically" should have been (i.e., not as white as it actually was).

The Good
There were many good things about this movie! Like I said, its main strength was the visual effects. I also liked the plot, the characters, and was pleasantly surprised by the acting.

Visual Effects: Right from the first scene, I was already reeling with how beautiful the movie was. The smooth shifts in gravity, the buildings fanning out (putting aside the war flashbacks of Windows 97 hanging and dragging a window around to amuse myself), the fight scenes using mystical weapons, the tessellated floors. I could barely pay attention to what the characters were saying while fighting a lot of the time because I was still absorbing the visuals.

The opening of the portal to another dimension also reminded me vaguely of Gatekeepers, and the way they signaled for it to open was a whole lot like Flame of Recca, but that only added to the movie's charm and cool-factor for me.
Characters/Acting: (Note that this is only taking into account the movie itself, not the basis in comics or other external ~controversies.) The movie was able to make itself more interesting by presenting different sorts of characters. I particularly loved Tilda Swinton's portrayal of The Ancient One - she is made for larger than life roles like that. Everything from how she holds herself, to the cadence of her voice, even to the last moments in the astral projection, were all perfectly in keeping with her character. I like that she wasn't infallible in the end, even though she only really addressed the issue in passing. I also liked that she was equal parts ~mystical-wise-person-with-lots-of-great-quotes archetype and lady-using-her-crazy-superpowers-to-make-jokes.

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo was also great. He didn't have much space to grow since there was already so many things going on, but he managed to make Mordo interesting and captivating in the relatively few scenes where he showed actual character (versus him being there just to fight/react). His character believably does what he does in the second post-credits scene - he has the motivation and ability to be the next cool baddie, so I'm looking forward to that.

Of course, I also liked Wong, if only for the Beyonce references. Weirdly, he was more the comic relief than anything else the movie, serving as the perfect (lack of) reaction face to Benadryl Cucumberskin's deadpan delivery. I'm also glad he un-dies eventually!
Plot: The plot was a bit touch and go at times, and it falls into a lot of the same traps as previous Marvel movies (a villain that leaves a lot to be desired, for example), but the main thing that made it work for me despite all the bad/cliche stuff is the idea of magic and the multiverse in the MCU. I said this in my general review up there, but the possibilities really did occupy my brain for an embarrassing amount of time during and after the movie - how does this kind of power affect the Infinity Gauntlet plot? What kinds of things will they be able to reverse in canon? Can Steve go back in time? If the spell can work on a cosmic being like Dormammu, it can probably work on a person like Steve, right? Or Quill? Will they enter a darker timeline? ~~Will they show Earth-3490?~~ ~~Can they make it so Civil War never happened?~~

My point is, in the end, though the plot isn't as complex and tight as I would usually like, its future possibilities makes up for it in my book.

The Bad
Most of the things that didn't work for me were based on Marvel doing the same thing over and over again and/or their mistreatment of characters.

Villain/Conflict: Lame villain with a lame name (though I was a fan of his Lego version in the Marvel Superheroes Lego game). Even lamer - he was defeated by a time loop. How does that even work? What if Dormammu hadn't killed Stephen all those times but didn't agree to the bargain? Would he have spawned infinitely until there was a whole planet of Stephens? Would physics even allow that in that universe or would the first Stephen combust before the next one came around? This is why time travel confuses me.
Women Characters: There were only two who played major roles: The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), and Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams). At the worst case, Marvel usually at least tries to make regular female characters seem empowered, but Christine in this was little more than a love interest who happened to be a doctor as well. She needed Stephen to work on the not-braindead patient at the start, needed Astral!Stephen to tell her where to push the needle in on his chest, etc. Her little screams were cute, but more like a cute-thing-of-the-moment rather than actual character building. This is putting aside the fact that she seemed to be in an at-worst abusive, at-best Vaguely Unhealthy relationship with Stephen in the beginning. (Still, I want her to be in some sort of club with Claire Temple.)

The Ancient One, of course, is a bad-ass. However, this role is contested by many due to whitewashing, so that's a thing that makes me sad to think about. More about this in the last part.
Protagonist: Another quippy, self-absorbed white dude. The difference is, for me, Stephen Strange is Tony Stark without the heart, arc reactor pun not intended. Tony Stark had a change of heart when he found out his weapons were killing innocent people - Stephen Strange had a change of heart when he... crashed his car trying to diagnose someone for his own glory. Don't diagnose and drive, people!

Though it was interesting to see the conflict shifting from Stephen trying to get his hands back, to Stephen understanding the bigger consequences of what he's learning, to his internal conflict of choosing between which of the two to dedicate his life to, the whole thing left his character less well-rounded than most since he's had to deal with more epic things like the multiverse, etc. Even Benzoyle CumberPeroxide's portrayal lacks some lovable x-factor, though he seemed to be injecting as much as he could given the script. His portrayal is charismatic, but to compare it to RDJ's Tony Stark is kind of... unseemly.

But seriously, this is going to be hell in Infinity Wars. Our list of quippy white dudes are: Stephen Strange, Tony Stark (probably? Or will he just be kicked puppy-looking?), Peter Parker, Thor, Peter Quill, Scott Lang, Clint Barton... and that's just main characters! Of the movies! What if they include the Netflix characters (they SHOULD)? Or the Agents of SHIELD characters (I wouldn't be against it, but I wouldn't sign a petition for it either)?

~~The only time I agreed with Steve in Civil War.~~

The Whitewashing Issue
(I wasn't sure whether to include this or not, but here goes nothing.)

Ever since I've been made aware of the issue of lack of diversity/representation in Western media, which was pretty early on because of Tumblr, I've always held some level of confusion over the issue. This might stem from me being Filipino and therefore getting my knowledge about the state of racism in America mostly from secondhand information like late night talk shows, TV shows, movies, and John Oliver.

In any case, there is definitely a lack of representation. I never even realized this despite watching various American shows even way back when - precisely because they always featured white people. Friends, Will and Grace, The OC, One Tree Hill - these were the American shows that were popular here when I was younger. This still seems to pervade now. Heck, just this week, the last person of color was voted off of Survivor! (#JusticeforMichaela) So, yes, let's get that out there: there's definitely a problem.

In this particular instance in Doctor Strange, the issue is that they switched The Ancient One from an old Tibetan man to a Celtic woman. According to reports, Marvel reps implied that it's because they didn't want to alienate their billions of Chinese audiences (should we have some sort of Godwin's law for China now?), as the Chinese government is currently in some form of tension with Tibetan government. So they switched the setting from Tibet to Nepal, made The Ancient One a bald, Celtic woman, and called it a day. Except, of course, they've erased representation of people of color by casting a white woman in an Asian role.

This is where my confusion comes in. I understand the outrage, and why people would be angered by this erasure. (Every time the US makes an American adaptation of some anime, a little part of me dies, like the money I'll never get back when I watched the American Dragon Ball movie. #HowToForget) On the other hand, the reps do have a point earlier on in the same interview linked in the article above in saying that the original Ancient One in the comics was inherently racist, playing to the Mystical Asian with Magic Powers Related to Martial Arts stereotype. They called it the "Kobayashi Maru of characters," a "cultural landmine," and said it was basically a lose-lose situation that they decided to address by just casting a really good actress in a role that was originally (1) male and (2) already racist.

Saying this is a convoluted issue is putting lightly.

Here's the thing though: I only really read and knew about this issue after I watched the movie - and I really liked the movie as it was. It didn't affect my enjoyment of it, because the role was so mystical that it didn't really matter to me what race the actor was - and let's be real. Tilda Swinton could wear an old robe and play Dumbledore, and she'd be great.

So... It's tough for me to iron out all my feelings about this, because it's just so disconnected for me. I really enjoyed the movie as it was, and I thought Tilda Swinton was insanely great in her role. I also despise the idea of whitewashing happening, even at a level as unnoticeable as this. (I say unnoticeable, because when they whitewash other things like anime, even ~magical ones, there are inherent cultural differences that don't quite sit well with the viewer, whether they're aware of the whitewashing or not. The Ancient One in Doctor Strange, for me, was not one of these cases, however - not that that's an excuse for whitewashing.)

Normally, that they cast a properly talented person in the role would be good enough for me, but movies that are adaptations of existing media always have that added layer of the original canon to pay homage to. But what if the original canon was racist? But what if the solution is also racist, but in a different way? Is the only solution to cast a Woman of Color whose nationality isn't at war with Tibet? Why didn't they just do that? (Also, is that catering/pandering too much to your audience, or is it a justified choice? Assuming Tilda Swinton was been better in the role than someone else.) Is this even something the audience should be problematizing to this extent?

I don't know, but I'm glad it's opening the discussion. I hope people are more level-headed about it real life and aren't like their Comments Section Counterparts. I don't know how to properly conclude this, but I do know my next post will probably be me ranking the Marvel movies released thus far because that's way lighter subject material that I'm actually mentally equipped to deal with, hahaha.

Ang dami ko nang sinabi. One more time, Steve, please...