Speeding out of his condo in his Lamborghini Huracan, Strange heads north. He calls an assistant to consider about next patients, he only wants difficult interesting cases. Distracted, he crashes and the car plunges into the river.
He is airlifted back to his hospital and Christine is there when he awakes, badly hurt, his hands have had to be rebuilt. Slowly recovering, his hands remain stiff and shaky, he can no longer work as a neurosurgeon. Feeling sorry for himself, Strange breaks up with Christine. He then hears about a man Jonathan Pangborn who recovered from a full cervical half-body paralysis. Strange finds Pangborn playing basketball and the man tells him he found the cure in Kathmandu.
Strange makes his way to Nepal and wanders the streets of Kathmandu. He is noticed and followed, Mordo saves him from muggers and takes him to his temple Kamar-Taj. There he meets The Ancient One.
She knows all about him and introduces himself to a new reality. He begins training and slowly learns to open gates to jump across the world. He learns the temple is part of a secret group saving the world from other dimension, multiuniverse enemies. While training, Mordo shows him a magic stick, and says the magic tool must choose him. A former student, Kaecilius, has stolen a page from a secret book and escaped with three zealots, there is worry he will decipher the page and call in Dormammu from across the universe to take over the world. Strange is upset and says he hasn't come to join their group, only to cure his hands.
On his own, Strange visits the library, he quickly learns how to use a time-shifting pendant, Agamotto, which also enables him to see the missing page from the book. Mordo tells him it is forbidden to use time spells as it can cause unforeseen problems.
There are three sanctums, in London, New York and Hong Kong where the group watches out for the world. Kaecilius finally deciphers the page and his group attacks the London office, a plain building with a logo window. They attack London and when Strange and Mordo try to assist Strange is sent to the New York centre. The building is deserted as he wanders the floors looking at various artifacts.
Kaecilius and his group then attack the New York sanctum. Strange is able to develop fighting skills on the fly. He gets rid of two zealots by using the gates and a burgundy cloak that seems to have some intelligence wraps itself around him. The cloak helps him subdue one zealot and restrain Kaecilius. Strange and Kaecilius have a talk about the Ancient One and immortality, but as Strange lets down his guard the other zealot revives and stabs him. Strange manages to open a gate and stagger into Christine's hospital cleaner's pantry. He barely manages to get on a table as Christine hooks him to a defibrillator and removes a sliver from his heart. Meanwhile, Strange separates his astral body and continues to fight the zealot, finally killing him. Sewn up and recovering, he tells Christine he must return and goes back through the gate.
Kaecilius has escaped and Mordo joins Strange in New York. The Ancient One also comes and suggests Strange take over the New York Sanctum, he refuses. They are impressed the "Cloak of Levitation" magic cape has chosen him.
Kaecilius returns with more zealots, Strange creates a shell to contain the fight and they go out into the street, Kaecilius uses his powers to shape shift the City and disorient Strange. The Ancient One returns to help but she falls and is mortally wounded. Strange once again goes to Christine's Hospital but it is too late. Strange follows the Ancient One's spirit in his astral form and they talk overlooking New York City. She accepts this is her end and suggests Strange can take over.
Back in the New York centre Strange and Mordo realize Hong Kong is next on Kaecilius' list. They gate over but the Hong Kong Sanctum has been overrun and Dormammu is growing as a nebula from the building , Strange uses Agamotto to partially reverse the process. Kaecilius recovers and manages to stun Strange. Strange then thinks of something and flies off into the heart of the Dormammu nebula. Here he confronts Dormammu and manages to create an infinite loop, Strange gets killed in various ways but is always reset. Dormammu is furious but finally agrees to leave Earth alone in return for Strange stopping the time loop. Back on the street, Strange sends Kaecilius and his crew into the nebula just before it vanishes.
Back in the Sanctum, Mordo is upset that Strange broke the rules in using the time pendant, saying there must be a reckoning and he retires from the group and walks away.
Sometime later Dr.Strange sits with Thor and agrees to help him find Odin and get rid of Loki from Earth.
And Mordo visits Pangborn and takes back the magic repairing his back. Mordo says the problem is too many sorcerors on Earth.
Review :
Wow! DOCTOR STRANGE is an incredible mindtrip. Its VFX alone makes Christopher Nolan's 'Inception' look like some kind of beta test. And this film is so much fun, it's hilarious, it's got some of the most complex, most elaborate action sequences I've seen all year, and I can't stop geekin' out about the cloak of levitation. This is Benedict Cumberbatch making his grand entrance into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Directed by Scott Derrickson who helped provide the script, DOCTOR STRANGE is about a successful, talented, arrogant neurosurgeon, Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch). Suddenly, a tragic car accident leaves Strange's hands permanently damaged, which means he can no longer perform surgery. After trying western medicine, he hears of a man who was badly injured and then got miraculously healed, this leads Strange to the secrets of a hidden world of alternate dimensions. Under the teaching and guidance of the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) Strange unleashes metaphysical abilities and ultimately takes on the responsibility of protecting earth from mystical threats.
Created by Marvel's legendary artist, Steve Ditko, the character Doctor Strange is a very unique one because he's not a product of some kind of technological armor, he's not a nordic god nor a space alien, and he doesn't get his powers from super serum nor gamma rays, and so kudos to Marvel Studios for taking a chance on this one of a kind character because it makes for an unbelievably fantastic origin story on screen that's just different from the rest of the bunch that Marvel has introduced to us so far. And there's just something refreshing about that.
What a great cast, they could not have picked a better lead star, Benedict Cumberbatch knocks it out of the park. Whenever Strange gets a bit cocky, you can see a little bit of Cumberbatch's Sherlock attitude kicking in there. But Strange is more quick to sensibility whereas Sherlock would still have to put them all through his reasoning filters. And Cumberbatch's sense of humor is absolutely sharp. There's a ton of funny moments in this film but they never take away from the problem at hand or what Strange has to tackle at that very moment.
I'm Asian but I'm not bothered by Tilda Swinton playing the Ancient One, I understand this is supposedly the film's biggest controversy but the fact of the matter is that once you've seen DOCTOR STRANGE, you'll understand why Tilda is perfect in this role. The woman is an impeccable actress and she exudes the specific wisdom needed for this because in many ways, when you deal with a monastery-like setting where people learn martial art and philosophies about self- control, the expectation is that the master would preach parables, analogies, or metaphors in bestowing that wisdom and Tilda does it with ease like David Carradine's Kwai Chang Caine from the old "Kung Fu" series.
Mads Mikkelsen's Kaecilius, I gotta say, is not my favorite villain in MCU, I think Mikkelsen does a fine job but the character just doesn't land for me. But I gotta give Scott Derrickson and his co-writers much credit for introducing as many elements as they could from Doctor Strange comic books including Dormammu, and so those who watch the film and may be confused by the jargons, like the Eye of Agamotto, can go to the comic books and discover why it is important to include those in a Doctor Strange movie along with the manipulation of space, energy and time which is also another big deal. And that leads me to what I think is the film's most amazing appeal,.. seeing buildings bend over on itself, characters teleporting, and the insane things that the cloak of levitation can do because it carries its own consciousness. It really doesn't get more of a movie magic than DOCTOR STRANGE.
Directed by Scott Derrickson who helped provide the script, DOCTOR STRANGE is about a successful, talented, arrogant neurosurgeon, Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch). Suddenly, a tragic car accident leaves Strange's hands permanently damaged, which means he can no longer perform surgery. After trying western medicine, he hears of a man who was badly injured and then got miraculously healed, this leads Strange to the secrets of a hidden world of alternate dimensions. Under the teaching and guidance of the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) Strange unleashes metaphysical abilities and ultimately takes on the responsibility of protecting earth from mystical threats.
Created by Marvel's legendary artist, Steve Ditko, the character Doctor Strange is a very unique one because he's not a product of some kind of technological armor, he's not a nordic god nor a space alien, and he doesn't get his powers from super serum nor gamma rays, and so kudos to Marvel Studios for taking a chance on this one of a kind character because it makes for an unbelievably fantastic origin story on screen that's just different from the rest of the bunch that Marvel has introduced to us so far. And there's just something refreshing about that.
What a great cast, they could not have picked a better lead star, Benedict Cumberbatch knocks it out of the park. Whenever Strange gets a bit cocky, you can see a little bit of Cumberbatch's Sherlock attitude kicking in there. But Strange is more quick to sensibility whereas Sherlock would still have to put them all through his reasoning filters. And Cumberbatch's sense of humor is absolutely sharp. There's a ton of funny moments in this film but they never take away from the problem at hand or what Strange has to tackle at that very moment.
I'm Asian but I'm not bothered by Tilda Swinton playing the Ancient One, I understand this is supposedly the film's biggest controversy but the fact of the matter is that once you've seen DOCTOR STRANGE, you'll understand why Tilda is perfect in this role. The woman is an impeccable actress and she exudes the specific wisdom needed for this because in many ways, when you deal with a monastery-like setting where people learn martial art and philosophies about self- control, the expectation is that the master would preach parables, analogies, or metaphors in bestowing that wisdom and Tilda does it with ease like David Carradine's Kwai Chang Caine from the old "Kung Fu" series.
Mads Mikkelsen's Kaecilius, I gotta say, is not my favorite villain in MCU, I think Mikkelsen does a fine job but the character just doesn't land for me. But I gotta give Scott Derrickson and his co-writers much credit for introducing as many elements as they could from Doctor Strange comic books including Dormammu, and so those who watch the film and may be confused by the jargons, like the Eye of Agamotto, can go to the comic books and discover why it is important to include those in a Doctor Strange movie along with the manipulation of space, energy and time which is also another big deal. And that leads me to what I think is the film's most amazing appeal,.. seeing buildings bend over on itself, characters teleporting, and the insane things that the cloak of levitation can do because it carries its own consciousness. It really doesn't get more of a movie magic than DOCTOR STRANGE.
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