The New <em>Doctor Strange </em>Is Not Just Another Marvel Movie
The last time Sam Raimi made a comic-book movie, nobody had ever heard of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That film was Spider-Man 3, in 2007, the final entry in his trilogy of adventures starring Tobey Maguire as the hero. It seemed like a story at war with itself; the director’s earnest zaniness was bumping up against studio demands for more villains, more plot twists, and more money on the screen. It was a box-office success but underwhelmed critics. A year later, Iron Man and The Dark Knight came along, and the superhero flick truly began its journey to monocultural supremacy.
Raimi has, the 28th entry in the ever-expanding MCU. Nominally a sequel to 2016’s , its story has to address plot threads from various other Marvel films and TV shows. How could Raimi, long one of genre cinema’s most individualistic voices, have any hope of cutting loose from the corporate strictures entangling such a project? I shouldn’t have worried. is overstuffed with the usual fan bait, but it’s also undeniably a Sam Raimi movie, and a remarkably good one at that.
