Originally published April 18, 2019

I am now regretting referring to Ant-Man as basically the same as Iron Man. It’s really going to undercut me telling you that Doctor Strange is actually the same as Iron Man. But like, more magical this time?

Doctor Strange (initially Dr. Stephen Strange, M.D.) is a surgeon, and a very good one. He’s not a very good person though. He’s obsessed with the prestige of his job. But when his hands are broken in an entirely avoidable but horrific car crash, his eyes are opened to an entirely new world. He has to become humanity’s first line of defense against magical threats because it turns out you can become a world-class wizard in, like, a year or something.

Mixed Messaging

Doctor Strange is a thematic mess. It appears as though one of the key themes will be the subjugation of the ego. There’s a very big scene that explicitly names this idea. It appears as though Strange has learned something. Immediately afterwards, Strange starts breaking rules because he’s decided that he knows better. He defies the librarian, he questions every lesson, and he ultimately steals an Infinity Stone.

This becomes an issue when trying to parse the themes, because each of these actions ends up being critical to his success at the end of the film. Strange actually does end up knowing better than everybody, and that saves the universe. Even before that, there’s a lot of talk about how quickly Strange is progressing and about how he was born for the mystic arts. It’s all got a distinct White Savior taste, and I don’t care for it. What’s worse is that there’s no real way to walk it back in future films. Strange saves the universe in this film as a direct result of his ego. The message is set.

Production Quality

The movie does have some remarkable visuals. I will give it that. The designs for the mirror dimension and the dark dimension draw a lot of inspiration from the classic Steve Ditko art. The sequence when Stephen’s proverbial third eye is opened for the first time is mind-bending.

Surprisingly, this film also has some inspired action sequences. The team behind the film wisely made a choice to discard traditional notions of what magic look like. The Master of the Mystic Arts in this film are warrior-monks. There’s a physicality to what they do that is much more visually stimulating than the conventional conception of a wizard casting spells. In some of the more inventive sequences, I got a heavy Matrix vibe, in a good way.

The Cast

Benedict Cumberbatch gives an excellent performance as a poor man’s Tony Stark. I really was not kidding about the parallels. There are only so many different variation of rich, quippy, white egomaniac, and this one is not stretching the boundaries.

Following up on one of the most unfortunate yet most common trends of the MCU, we have yet another highly talented actor being completely wasted in a villain role. This time it’s Mads Mikkelsen as Kaecilius. He’s the ultimate expression of the dark reflection of the hero trope. He barely even has speaking lines. He only appears in fight scenes. We don’t even get the obligatory flashback or villain monologue in any meaningful sense.

Rachel McAdams is also relegated to a woefully underwritten role as Christine Palmer. McAdams is very good at her job, so she does manage to breathe a little life into the character, but that doesn’t change the fact that she’s relegated to playing a fairly generic love interest.

Whitewashing and the MCU: Part Deux

And then there’s the Ancient One of it all. Buckle up because I have OPINIONS on this.

Once again, we have to talk about the representation issue. Honestly, it’s great that Chiwetel Ejiofor was able to craft an interesting and nuanced Mordo for this film. It’s awesome that keen-eyed viewers will note that Daniel Drumm, brother of Jericho Drumm (known in the comics as Brother Voodoo), appears at one point. Representation in any from is a win, in my book. But a victory for black representation does not negate the fact that this film whitewashes an important Asian character.

The Ancient One, Doctor Strange’s master, is not traditionally an androgynous white person. The Ancient One has historically been Asian. This is a far, far more egregious example of whitewashing than what happened in Iron Man 3, mostly because the character changed was heroic and the change was made for no particular reason.

Now, it is true that early depictions of the Ancient One invoke problematic stereotypes regarding Asian folks and mysticism. But here’s the bottom line; the answer to problematic Asian representation in past works is not to eliminate Asian representation altogether. There’s a complicated, nuanced debate about how precisely to handle the issue (a debate I am not qualified to mediate). However, it needs to happen with the understanding that representation is a good thing and that stripping away the limited chances certain marginalized groups get for representation compounds the initial error.

Alternative Remedies

If you’re absolutely going to insist on making the Ancient One white, specifically Celtic, then place Strange’s training in the UK. The Marvel Universe has a long history of magic being related to Britain. There’s already an ancient and white master of the mystic arts in the Marvel canon. You may have heard the name before: Merlin. And don’t tell me that’s a role with too much baggage. Literally nobody is screaming for a strictly comics-accurate adaptation of Captain Britain anytime soon. By still setting things in Nepal but casting Tilda Swinton, you’ve simultaneously exploited Nepalese culture for awkward mystical connotations and still centered whiteness as the ultimate focus of your narrative. That was always going to be an issue with Stephen Strange being white, but the solution the film-makers chose doubles down.

Actual Representation

Better yet, don’t insist on making the Ancient One white! If you’re worried about negative stereotypes regarding Asian characters and mysticism, then just take care to not invoke those stereotypes. It’s not as if those negative stereotypes are inherent to Asian identity. They are culturally-developed, and they can be culturally-deconstructed. It’s very interesting that this solution seemed to make sense to the filmmakers when applied to Wong, who is traditionally Doctor Strange’s manservant, but seemed beyond the pale when applied to Doctor Strange’s superior.

And maybe, just maybe, you wouldn’t have to worry about problematic implications that could arise from the portrayal of one Asian character if you had actually been casting Asian performers all along. Instead, in the MCU you have created a universe that is even more white and more male than the already homogenous comics universe it is based on. This is the result of years of casting and narrative decisions, not an inevitability. I truly hope that the dedication put forth in Black Panther and Captain Marvel is a sign of changing priorities in general, not a flash in the pan. I guess we’ll see when the recently announced Shang-Chi movie comes out.

Conclusion

Stepping back to actually talk about this movie: Doctor Strange is definitely one of the weaker parts of the latter-day Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s not bad, but I don’t recommend going out of your way to watch it. Sure, the “Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain” scene is neat, but you have to slog through a whole lot of meh to get there.

Accordingly, Doctor Strange goes towards the bottom of the rankings. It isn’t actively bad, but it’s also got less going for it than the vast majority of films in the franchise. Fourth from the bottom seems fair.

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