Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Sam Raimi inherited a project begun by someone else. Scott Derrickson left in January 2020 over creative differences and later said the film he wanted was a genuine horror picture. Raimi kept the horror grammar, but its distribution is lopsided: the first half is chase and set-up, while the torn limbs and possessed corpse pile into the final third. The grief driving the story is built elsewhere. Wanda’s choices rest on the finale of the WandaVision series, which this film compresses into a few lines, so anyone who skipped it reads her as motiveless cruelty. America Chavez, played by Xochitl Gomez, is a one-switch character: she opens portals when frightened, and the plot uses her to change location. The most distinctive sequence turns a duel into a composition. Two sorcerers hurl musical notes at each other, and Danny Elfman scored it by setting Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony against Bach’s Toccata and Fugue, a simplification Kevin Feige proposed at the last minute. America is written as a gay character, and the film was refused release in Saudi Arabia and never reached ticketing in Kuwait or Qatar. For someone who also follows the Marvel shows and accepts that 126 minutes end with the knot handed to the next film. Not for anyone unwilling to watch rotting bodies and severed limbs beside a child.