When the Marvel Cinematic Universe ended The Infinity Saga with Avengers: Endgame - the culmination of 21 films coming to a resolution in regards to big-time baddy, Thanos - all eyes shifted to where the studio would go from there. In Spiderman: Far From Home, we got first mention of the multiverse, which was elaborated upon more in Spiderman: No Way Home. Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness seemed to be the next logical step to properly explore the multiverse, but does it hold up to scrutiny?

In Multiverse of Madness, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has a dream involving a teenager being chased by a monster. When said teenager, America Chavez played by newcomer Xochitl Gomez, arrives to our reality being chased by a different monster, Strange quickly realizes it wasn’t a dream. Chavez has the ability to travel between alternate realities and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) hopes to steal her power to find a reality where she can live with the family she created in WandaVision. Strange and Chavez travel through the multiverse to escape and hopefully defeat Wanda, who has taken on her alter ego identity of the Scarlet Witch.

You would be hard-pressed to find a better performance that the one Olsen offers. She is incredibly terrifying one moment and a relatable grieving mother in the next. Her performance lends her motivations even heavier gravitas. Unfortunately, narratively speaking, it seems there is a missing piece to the Wanda Maximoff story between the events of WandaVision and beginning of Multiverse of Madness. She seemed reserved to be alone at the end of Wandavison and sacrificed her ability to maintain the life she created for the sake of the people around her - now she'll murder anyone to get what she once had. It’s a jarring tonal change in her character.

Outside of the curious Scarlet Witch arch, America Chavez is nothing more than a plot device to travel the multiverse. Besides her multidimensional power, her most highlighted trait is having two mothers which, without a more comprehensive look into her world, simply serves to check the diversity box. It doesn’t add anything of true value to the character at a time when authenticity in incorporating diversity in essential to meaningful inclusion. The audience deserved more exploration of the character. That’s a theme of the Doctor Strange sequel - for all of the endless possibilities, the multiple realities, and different characters, there’s so much of this film comes off as incredibly shallow.

Sam Raimi certainly left his mark on the film, but this 28th entry to the MCU suffers from an identity crisis. Instead of jumping with two feet into a horror-based comic book film, the studio seemed to have tip-toed around the idea. The score was one of a modern jump scare horror film - without the jump scares.

Multiverse of Madness is a messy movie for Marvel that ultimately disappoints on many levels. Perhaps there’s an alternate reality where Multiverse of Madness is a good film; it’s just not in the one we currently inhabit.

Acting/Casting - 1 | Visual Effects and Editing - 1 | Story and Message - 0 | Entertainment Value - 1 | Music Score and Soundtrack - 0 | Reviewer’s Preference - 1 | What does this mean?