Doctor Strange (5 Stars)

Since moving to Germany I've acquired a lot of new readers. I've been handing my card to people I meet, and judging by the boost in readers based in Germany (according to Google's statistics) my marketing strategy has been successful. There's something that might not be obvious to my new readers. This isn't a film review site, it's a film diary. That's a subtle but significant difference. It means that if I watch a film five time I'll write about it five times. You might ask what happens if I run out of things to say. Do I repeat myself? Not usually. I just add a few random thoughts, such as telling you what the weather was like when I watched the film. My "reviews" aren't always informative, but I hope they're always entertaining.

So what's the weather like today? It's snowing.

That's my card. Cute, isn't it? I designed it myself. The only thing I don't like is that the dancing logo isn't quite centred, it's slightly to the left of centre. When I reprint the card I'll correct the error, but at the moment I still have a few hundred copies in a box, so I'll have to use them first.

Since this blog is a diary, it's as much for me as it is for other people. Usually I remember a film after watching it, even though I watch hundreds of films every year, but sometimes there are exceptions. This is most apparent with this years's Fantasy Film Festival. It was only three months ago, but last week I realised that I couldn't remember some of the films, so I went back and read my reviews. I can clearly remember the best films and the worst films, but after watching four films a day my memory of the average films is hazy. I wish I'd had time to write more detailed reviews.

One film that I didn't and never could forget is "Doctor Strange", which I saw in the cinema last year. For me this is the new direction of Marvel films. Benedict Cumberbatch was perfect in the title role. After initial resistance I could even accept Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One, however weird it is to cast a white woman as an oriental man. At least she's dead now, so she won't be appearing in the next Doctor Strange films.

Mads Mikkelsen, always a wonderful actor, plays the part of the arch-villain Kaecilius in the film. There's a character in the comics with this name, but I don't think it's the same person. In the comics Kaecilius is a minor character without much mystic power, but in the film he's a powerful enemy. That's a problem with the Marvel films. So often a character is thrown in, and it's impossible to know whether he's an old character from the comics or someone completely new.

I enjoy the film very much, especially the Inception-ish cityscapes, but there's one criticism I have to make. It was too early to feature a battle between Doctor Strange and Dormammu. In the comics Dormammu is Doctor Strange's greatest enemy, so Marvel should have built up to him over a few films; first weaker enemies, and then finally a big showdown with Dormammu in the third or fourth film. After that Umar could step in as the main opponent. The trouble is that the Marvel film producers are too impatient. I blame Kevin Feige. There are hundreds of issues of the comics of each superhero to draw on, but the Marvel films want to do it all at once to keep the comic fanboys happy. It doesn't work with me. I'd rather progress slowly though the storylines.

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