Gabriel Medina

Eh. It felt directionless until the third act.

This game was fun for about 30 minutes, until I realized that I could just be playing The Outer Worlds

On the positive side, the action was very entertaining. The sorcerer magic was actually used creatively and was not just orange circles and cool shapes. The fact that all versions of Steven Strange are literally the same person is an interesting idea to explore. I'm also glad that Wanda is gone because I really didn't like her place in the MCU. The negatives really pile up. The runtime is too short and it leads to some major pacing issues. For example, 10 minutes in, we jump into the action with barely any build up. When we enter Earth-838, the writers try to get us invested into the Illuminati. This doesn't work since there isn't enough time allocated to help the viewer understand this universe. What is the Illuminati? Why do they exist? How does this group relate to the world that we are in? Due of the pacing, it felt like the climax was over with the flick of a wrist. Some of the characters also did not seem fully realized. Wanda keeps on claiming that her actions are justifiable. She claims that Steven gives up the infinity stone and is praised, but she tries to kill a teenager and is punished. The difference is that one action was to save the universe and the other is to see her children. These actions are in no way comparable. America Chavez falls for the superhero trope that she blames herself for the loss of her parents. The problem is that it is mentioned twice, yet it is treated as her full character arc. This is a small nitpick, but I thought Steven had already moved past Christine at the end of the first movie. The cinematography and directing was also a bit weird. Almost the whole movie had an ugly saturation. It honestly looked like a CW show with a little bit of orange. Sam Raimi's directing was thankfully not the generic back and forth shots that so many other Marvel directors use, but his style felt inconsistent at times. On one hand, we have pacing problems, character problems, and shooting problems. This movie is clearly not trying to be the comic book movie cinematic masterpiece that we haven't seen in a decade and a half. You can still enjoy the movie for when it is trying to be entertaining.

What did I just witness. That was definitely unique and interesting.

A lot of good messages and symbolism with a wacky and less grounded climax. Something that I appreciate Pixar for doing is instead of improving their animation to be as realistic as possible, they are experimenting with new art styles. We have seen this is Luca and now this movie.