"yet another brilliant entry to the MCU, darker than previous entries but with perhaps a little parental guidance fun for the whole family"

After what seemed like forever, another Marvel blockbuster summer is upon us.. and they’ve made it clear that 2022 is not going to be any different.

Now, Doctor Strange’s second outing has been common knowledge for quite a while now, with the first trailer even being the post credit scene for Spider-Man: No Way Home which is arguably the best Marvel movie this side of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Now I’m a child of the late eighties and early nineties.. this means I was a fan of comic books in general but also the horror genre, why am I talking about horror? Well this is the closest we have gotten so far to a horror movie set in the MCU.. there are a lot more darker elements here than in any other entry, which given that the reigns were handed over to horror maestro Sam Raimi shouldn’t be a huge surprise.

Speaking of Raimi, this is crawling with the DNA of the Evil Dead, from the camera work and some extremely familiar choices when it comes to angle and shots chosen as well as with the humour used.

It’s widely accepted that any Marvel film is essentially a spoiler in itself but for perhaps the past six months there have been so many supposed leaks saying how balls to wall crazy this was going to be and what characters were supposedly confirmed to appear.. what I can tell you is that they wound it in so that everything makes sense in the narrative.

The scene which I’m sure everyone wants to see is that of the Illuminati themselves.. People have been speculating on their dream line up for this “team” and objectively you aren’t always able to please everyone, however… in the most non spoiler way possible, I can confirm that the choices made are both as faithful as possible to the source material and extremely satisfying to see, plus of course, just the right amount of fan service.. and maybe even a redemption… but I fear I have said too much already.

Casting is… a hard one to talk about but it is superb, the introduction of America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) was dealt with well although there will always be someone who complains that her having two mothers was shoehorned in for political correctness sake.

Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff aka the Scarlet Witch is simply a powerhouse performance, further showing her range as an actress, switching seamlessly from emotion to emotion, pulling no punches whilst doing so and revelling in it.

The unusual thing which is now possible since Loki debuted on Disney+ is that the majority of the characters we see in this entry are variants.. We’ve all seen Defender Strange and Evil Strange in the Trailer (However a beardless Strange was somewhat weird and reminded me a little too much of Benedict Cumberbatch’s turn as Sherlock).

A cynic may argue that this is a bit of short changing by having the same actor play multiple incarnations but it the realms of comic books this isn’t anything new.

Seeing this on an IMAX screen is simply the way to do it, the visuals stand out and are accompanied brilliantly with the music by Danny Elfman!

In summary, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness is yet another brilliant entry to the MCU, darker than previous entries but with perhaps a little parental guidance fun for the whole family, no spoilers but you could even say it’s… Groovy

Solid 4/5, falling just the smallest touch behind Spider-Man: No Way Home yet being consistent in its quality.