Gregory House would have been absent his defining leg injury. It helps that he’s not that much of a schmuck, probably resembling how Dr. Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch, doing his best "Hugh Laurie doing an American accent" impression) is a slightly arrogant but undeniably brilliant surgeon. The Shanghai Knights meets The Matrix prologue introduces our main villain (Mads Mikkelsen) and offers a terrific curtain raiser that teases just how the action will work in this particular world. It is arguably their first one that feels like “just a superhero movie.” Doctor Strange is MCU’s most conventional effort. It wasn’t enough in 2011 when Green Lantern compared so poorly to X-Men: First Class and Captain America: The First Avenger. When superhero pics are among the dominant forms of would-be live-action blockbuster, being a so-so “hero’s journey” origin story isn’t enough. It too offers unapologetic fantasy imagery within a painfully generic “chosen one accepts the call” origin story. But that’s the comparison that sticks out in regards to Doctor Strange. I realize that comparing any comic book film to Green Lantern is a game of dangerous trollery, so for the record, I don’t hate Green Lantern. Worst case scenario, they can throw Tom Hiddleston’s Loki into the sequel and watch Tumblr implode upon itself. So I wouldn’t panic too much if the film plays closer to Ant-Man than Thor: The Dark World ($642 million back in Oct./Nov. If Doctor Strange ends up closer to $500m than $600m, then that will offer a preview of how the next wave of “and introducing…!” MCU movies will play over the next few years.īut Doctor Strange is nearly the only Phase 3 offering that isn’t somehow unique in some way (new Spider-Man, the debut of The Wasp, the first black-led MCU movie, the first female MCU film, etc.). But Ant-Man had to settle for $519m worldwide (horrors, I know) in July of 2015. Guardians of the Galaxy broke out huge with $333 million domestic and $773m worldwide, still the biggest “no Tony Stark” MCU movie yet, back in Aug. The only thing “at stake” for this one is figuring out what “normal” is or a stand-alone “part 1” MCU movie in the post- Avengers world. ![]() So now all Disney has to do is hope that the next wave of critics don’t screw too much with “Yay, it’s good!” narrative while trying not to give away every bit of visual wonder in the next two weeks worth of TV spots and online clips. The first batch of reviews is almost entirely positive, even if there aren’t a ton of raves (as of this writing, the average Rotten Tomatoes score is 6.9/10). Pre-release tracking suggests a domestic opening weekend of anywhere from $55 to $75 million, which isn’t a very useful prediction.
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