Mini Review - Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme

Doctor Strange is one of Marvel’s most beloved magical characters, back in January I did a 4 issue test of his ongoing title, now I’m going to take a brief look at the animated title just as the movie reaches its the end of its second weekend in cinemas. Released by Lionsgate in 2007, it has a fairly mixed reception with fans. Let’s take a look.

Steven Strange is a high end Doctor who sees only strange cases that bring the hospital money and refuses outright to deal with children. When the coma ward becomes filled with children having the same dream, Steven is called to help but ultimately can do nothing. On his way home he sees what he thinks are the children on the road and eventually runs his car off the road, crushing his hands in the process.

Strange travels around the world, seeking a cure but the damage is too extensive and he ultimately runs out of money. He is told by a stranger named Wong to come to Tibet where he may be able to heal himself. There he meets the Sorcerer Supreme, who themselves are facing a dire threat. Dormammu is returning.

Strange initially starts to work, as his progress is blocked by guilt. He tried to perform a complex operation that many doctors refused to do on the grounds of its complexity, on his sister mere days after being qualified as a Doctor. Yeah… it was never gonna work out well. The Sorcerer Supreme tells him to accept that she couldn’t be saved and once he is able to do so he unlocks a new talent. He can manipulate energy to conjure artefacts, weaponry and shields, to carry heavy loads and (most impressively) to turn a wielder’s magic against them.

Things do not look so good for the Sorcerer Supreme as his redshirts are being dwindled with each of Dormammu’s attacks, not without thanks to the hand-fisted leadership of Mordo. Now a part of their force, Steven joins them as the visit Dormammu’s prison in the Nexus, inside the Sanctum Sanctorum. He sees the face of Dormammu and is reminded of the face in the dreams of those in the coma ward. In sleep, the pure mind of a child could enter his realm, and Dormammu is using this to fuel his escape.

Steven and Mordo head off to wake the children as the final monster devours the remaining redshirts before being ultimately defeated by the Sorcerer Supreme. Jealous over not being chosen as his successor, Mordo drives a bargain with Dormammu, for the death of the Sorcerer Supreme. Dormammu awakens the children and they begin to gather as Mordo kills the sorcerer supreme and to defy convention, he doesn’t get to pass final words of wisdom to our protagonists.

Wong and Steven, now the new Sorcerer Supreme defeat Mordo rather easily as the children allow Dormammu to escape. Steven defeats Dormammu again rather easily.

OK, I need to address the usual complaint. The addition of the sick daughter being the reason that he’s a grump as opposed to just bottomless egotism, like it was in the comics. I… Actually kinda like it. Sometimes it’s not too easy to sympathise with someone who’s just some asshole, adding this dimension to the character allows you to relate to him more easily and want to see him head through his journey. Of course, if you want a more faithful adaptation, you shouldn’t look to the upcoming movie either, their sorcerer supreme is both Celtic and female (in an effort to appease China)

The animation is tremendous for a direct-to-dvd feature like this, when it comes to magic. The magic looks tremendous and it looks like DC is taking note with its Justice League Dark movie incorporating similar ideas to the animation. Outside of magic itself it’s fairly standard and below average in places.

The movie is strong in its action scenes, showing the monsters to be threats… most of the time and ultimately what allows me to see past the notable flaws of the movie and find enjoyment from it.

Those flaws, let’s start with characters. There are only 6 notable characters in the main plot. Steven himself, The Original Sorcerer Supreme, Wong, Mordo, Dormammu and Dr Gina Atwater. The Original Sorcerer Supreme is the mentor figure and is dying, he has no real arc. Wong has no arc, Dormammu is as generic as pure evil gets, Mordo is jealous… and that’s it. Dr Gina is Strange’s ex-wife or something… and that’s it. Strange himself is the only one with an arc, the others have defined character traits, but that’s really it. But then you have the redshirts, those people that have no real character and exist only to die. I get it, you want to have a character who isn’t a main one die, but you could at least give them something. I suppose you get their magic styles but I want to know something about them.

Then we have the villains, who are defeated way too easily for all the threat that’s been built up, particularly with Dormammu. The talent of Jonathan Adams is wasted on this oh so generic villain. I’m no fan of some of the things of Korra season 2 did but Vaatu was amazing in that season. Period.

Mordo is boring, I’ve seen this cliché before and it bored me then too. He also should’ve had more of a role near the end. I think he should’ve been their main fight rather than the pointless stuff with Dormammu.

But it still managed to keep me intrigued and entertained for 75 minutes.

Rating 65/100

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Images/clips used are from Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme. All images in this review are subject to fair use