‘Multiverse of Madness’ Delivers Action and Thrills

*** This is an extended version of my Multiverse of Madness review that is currently in the online edition of the Examiner today!***

After the MCU wrapped up their immense Infinity Saga with ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ eager fans began to speculate what the popular cinematic universe would tackle next. Not long after ‘Endgame’ was released, it was announced that the Marvel franchise will go through the unknown multiverse.

Marvel’s concept of the multiverse was introduced in the first season of Disney Plus’ ‘Loki’ and continued on to last year’s big smash hit ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home.’ Now it’s time to take another trip through the multiverse in one of the most exciting and scariest MCU movies to date.

In the highly anticipated ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,’ the MCU fully unlocks the Multiverse and pushes the boundaries further than ever before.

Journey into the unknown with Doctor Strange, who, with the help of mystical allies both old and new, traverses the mind-bending and dangerous alternate realities of the Multiverse to confront a mysterious new adversary.

‘Multiverse of Madness’ is an exhilarating and visually stunning MCU entry where the cinematic universe does an astounding job pushing the boundaries in so many ways and the visuals are simply astounding.

‘The ‘Doctor Strange’ sequel delivers lots of incredible action sequences that will surprise you. This is definitely one of the most intense entries of the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far. ‘Multiverse of Madness’ is the first MCU feature to slightly dive into the horror genre and it doesn’t disappoint.

Indeed, this MCU movie is darker than the previous movies in the ever-growing franchise. The thrills are great and there’s a few tense moments featuring the Scarlet Witch character. ‘Madness’ also does an incredible job surprising you and you can feel the horror vibes that director Sam Raimi generally has in his films.

And, speaking of surprises, there are lots of them in this movie and I'm not going to spoil them for you here! There are a couple moments that may be a little confusing, especially with the Scarlet Witch story-line. Most of her plot branched off from the ending of the Disney Plus limited series ‘WandaVision’, which is worth a look if you have the streaming platform.

So, make sure to check out ‘Multiverse of Madness’ on the big screen. Filled with exhilarating action, incredible surprises and even a few scares, it’s really worth seeing it on the big screen!

The cast: Benedict Cumberbatch (Spider-Man: No Way Home) as Doctor Strange; Elizabeth Olsen (Disney Plus’ Wanda Vision) as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch; Chiwetel Ejiofor (Showtime’s The Man Who Fell to Earth) as Baron Mordo; Benedict Wong (Spider-Man: No Way Home; Shang-Chi) as Wong; Xochitl Gomez (Netflix’s The Baby-Sitters Club) as America Chavez; Jett Klyne (WandaVision) as Tommy Maximoff; Julian Hilliard (WandaVision; The Conjuring 3) as Billy Maximoff; Sheila Atim (Amazon Prime's The Underground Railroad) as Sara; Adam Hugill (1917) as Rintrah and Rachel McAdams (Netflix’s Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga) as Christine Palmer - among a few others!

‘Doctor Strange 2’ is written by Michael Waldron (season one of ‘Loki’) and directed by Sam Raimi (Evil Dead movies; the original ‘Spider-Man’ trilogy).

A sequel to ‘Doctor Strange’ has been in development since 2018. Marvel announced the ‘Multiverse of Madness’ title at the San Diego Comic Con in July 2019. In January 2020, original director Scott Derrickson (who also helmed the 2016 movie) stepped down as director due to “creative differences.”

Initially, the sequel was originally set to be released before ‘No Way Home.’ But, when Marvel Studios had to re-shuffle their release dates, the two releases changed order. During the course of production, some story elements had to be changed to accommodate the new release order of the movies.

Director Sam Raimi initially didn’t want to direct any future superhero movies, having lost faith due to the critical and audience backlash he received from ‘Spider-Man 3’. The filmmakers cite a few Spielberg films as an influence on the action and horror scenes, notably ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ ‘The Temple of Doom,’ ‘Poltergeist’ and ‘Gremlins’ (the last two he only produced).

‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, frightening images and some language and has a running time of 126 minutes.