#ancient one

The most striking part of the film is its crazy fight scenes. The Mirror Dimension effects are excellent, and they make every fight they’re in a visual treat to watch as reality warps around itself. The time reverse effects in the final battle are also really good, and the characters play along with them so well. It’s probably just all CGI, but the effects are crazy enough that it doesn’t matter. I also like how creative the fight in the Sanctum is, forcing Dr Strange to use every available tool to his advantage, even if it makes the Sanctum’s guardian look like a chump. 

That said, the best fight in this movie is easily the one that is no fight at all. Dr Strange killing himself over and over to trap Dormammu in a time loop is such an incredible scene. It’s not only a cool way to defeat an impossibly powerful adversary, but it’s such a good thematic ending as well. It’s an outside the box solution - something Strange has always excelled at -  that requires him to think differently, losing over and over again when he refused to take risky patients earlier in the film. There’s a reason “Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain” became a meme, and it’s because this final confrontation is perfect.

Dr Strange himself is a really good protagonist, following the Tony Stark model of “insufferable genius who undergoes a great tragedy that changes their worldview and makes them become a better person”. Instead of realizing that he’s been hurting real people the whole time, Strange gets hurt himself. Once on the other end of the metaphorical (and in one instance, literal) operating table, he realizes that his patients are people too. So he is like Tony Stark in that regard, learning that the world doesn’t revolve around him, and like Tony Stark, he shifts his goals from just helping himself up to actually helping everyone he can. By the end of the film, he’s not just the Sorcerer Supreme, but the world’s surgeon. The biggest flaw with his arc is that most of his character development kinda happens off-screen, but it still happens gradually enough that you can see the steps he took even if you don’t see how he took those steps.

While Strange himself is really good, his supporting cast is kinda mid. Christine is your run-of-the-mill love interest, with the only real twist being that she’s an ex-girlfriend while still being a good person (which is okay because Strange is the asshole). She’s supportive and active when she needs to be, but doesn’t have much personality beyond that. Wong is in this movie way less than I remember, and Mordo doesn’t do much aside from mistrust Strange and become disillusioned with Kamar-Taj. He serves alright as Mentor #2, but he exists to set up that post-credits scene and eventual sequel (that is what the sequel’s gonna be about, right?). 

The big secondary character is Mentor #1, the Ancient One. She’s the one who opens Dr Strange’s eyes to magic, and the one who guides him through what it means to be a Sorcerer. She’s a little soft on him, but she can literally see his future so it makes sense that she wants to train him well. Her death scene is also really good, showing that she wanted to protect the world so badly that she sacrificed her own morals to do it. Strange manages to break this “curse” without sacrificing his morals, because even if he does break the laws of reality, he doesn’t care about those. Maybe he should, but those are consequences for a future film (that is what the future film’s gonna be about, right?).

Dormammu and Kaecilius are both weak villains, but Kaecilius needs to be there to test Strange’s morals. Strange could “save” everyone via Dormammu, but he’s a doctor, so he knows that what Kaecilius wants isn’t living. Mordo manages to be a stronger villain in one 2-minute post-credits scene than they do the whole film. His desire to cull the unruly amount of Sorcerers is such a natural, yet surprising continuation of the film. Mordo was the mentor, but now he’s the villain, trying to tear down everything the Ancient One built up, presumably including Dr Strange.

As for worldbuilding, the magic system is pretty cool, if simple. It’s mostly magical constructs and the Mirror Dimension, along with a handful of magic artifacts. We don’t really see how those are created, but the library implies the existence of a magic system far more vast than we see. I like that the implications are there, and I like that this movie keeps it simple, because it doesn’t need to get more complex to tell its story.

As for MCU connections, there are basically none. The Avengers are mentioned once I think, and we see Stark Tower, firmly placing this film pre-Homecoming. I like it here though, because the big connection is that the Eye of Agamotto is an Infinity Stone. This is where things really turn cosmic, and the brand new magic system emphasizes that. Thor’s always been around, but the world of the MCU is far bigger than we thought we knew.