Yeah, I watched the Red Letter Media review of this because I don't give a f#ck about spoilers and that definitely sounds true.
I'm still not that interested in it even though Raimi did it, because from what it sounds like he only has splashes of his work in it. I don't like inconsistency like that. Marvel has been struggling with consistent tone lately.
Just got back from seeing this. It had issues, but it was alright. I'm a Wanda fan so I was entertained. I thought it was average. My son and daughter thought it was horrible.
Yeah, from what I've read, the studio butchered Raimi's vision for the film. IIRC, his original cut was around 160 minutes long. But then Disney Marvel made them do a bunch of reshoots while simultaneously cutting it down to just over two hours. So, from the sounds of it, a lot of what Raimi wanted for the film ended up getting watered down.
#releasetheraimicut
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Wanda should have been able to just [SPOILER - highlight to read]: turn everyone who got in her way into spaghetti but then the heroes would have had no chance of winning at all. So, they just reduced her to shooting red magic lasers 90% of the time, which was dumb.
Also, she can apparently send demons between universes to chase America down but can't go herself? And that's not even getting into the No Way Home points I raised about that earlier.
But this is something that I've previously stated was a concern of mine after WandaVision came out. That they made her so powerful that any story that involves her is going to require a lot of PIS in order for her not to immediately succeed in whatever her objective is.
But the MCU doesn't seem to know how to handle magical characters in general. Because I've had similar complaints about Loki after his solo series and even Strange himself in the past. They give these characters all these different powers and abilities that are all extremely useful, but then basically have them forget about most of them when the plot demands it. Because if characters like Wanda, Loki or Strange consistently utilised their abilities properly, very few opponents would stand a chance against them.
__________________ Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
I enjoyed this and liked it much more than the first. [SPOILER - highlight to read]: The best part was definitely zombie Strange. That was pure Raimi. I loved the horror vibes, and genuinely did not see SW being the villain coming. Tons of great scenes.
Like everyone else, not a super fan of the illuminati being stomped within minutes. Wanda duking it out with Captain Carter and Marvel while reality warping the others to hell was stupid.
Yeah, shortening runtime for cinematic releases isn't uncommon. But when you combine a really extensive cut down (literally 25% of the film) with a bunch of reshoots it rarely ends well.
__________________ Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
Saw this Friday night. 6.5-7/10. I was expecting this to be the best flick in Marvel's Phase 4 lineup by a country mile, but it gets a distant second place after the excellence that was No Way Home.
[SPOILER - highlight to read]:The Good:
- Agree with the comments on Xavier's introduction with Danny Elfman's rendition of the X-Men cartoon theme. Best moment of the movie, along with the illuminati intro (more on that in a moment).
- Raimi's horror touches throughout the film, especially Zombie Strange with his Darkman/Army of Darkness evil Ash makeup and cosmetics, were a lot of fun to see again.
- Elfman delivered another solid superhero film score.
- Strange vs. evil Strange music battle was one of the best MCU action set pieces to date.
- As stated by nearly everyone on this thread, the America Chavez/Dr. Strange falling through the multiverse sequence was great.
[SPOILER - highlight to read]:The Bad:
- This movie was too mediocre for Raimi's comeback to Marvel. Should've let him have full creative control and go crazy on the big screen, but nope, you get some Raimi stylistic flashes mixed in with the Marvel formula.
- The overarching phase four 4 plotting is getting all over the place with this movie and some of the other media (Loki in particular) for the MCU.
[SPOILER - highlight to read]:The Ugly:
- While Cumberbatch, as usual, gives a good performance (rather, good performances), his character arc as Strange was near non-existent here. Between No Way Home and MoM, Strange is somewhat going the way of Fat Thor in Endgame: going from an a-tier character to comic relief.
- While Wanda being the villain was a welcome twist, the only way her character arc makes sense is that she has become fully psychotic because of the Scarlet Witch and darkhold taking hold on her. Wandavision ended with her powered up and looking for her boys, but didn't leave any indication she would try to slaughter every universe in her way to get to them. Making her any type of sympathetic doesn't work in the light of the film's plot.
- The Illuminati cameos were soured horribly by the fact they get wrecked a couple minutes after their intro. One of the best sequences of the movie was Professor X going into Wanda's mind, took me back to the best of Fox's X-Men movies, and then he gets insta-killed. Why have all these big characters if they're going to killed immediately? At least let them team up with Strange for a bit, turns out one or two are working with Wanda, etc. Something besides "oh look, Mr. Fantastic!" And then he dies.
I've enjoyed the film. Sure wouldn't mind it being longer.
[SPOILER - highlight to read]: Not surprised that Illuminati got steamrolled --- that's the main use of characters from alternate realities, they all die like Kenny from South Park.
I enjoyed the film from a visual standpoint, but the issues I had with some of the plot elements did detract from it for me as a whole.
And I think a reason why a lot of people are annoyed with [SPOILER - highlight to read]: how the Illuminati was handled is the fact that fans have been really excited to see the FF, X-Men etc. ever since Marvel got the film rights back. So, to finally see some of those characters only for them to get wrecked with embarrassing ease was a massive letdown. And that's not even getting into the dumb ways a lot of them died. Reed in particular was an absolute moron, which is made worse by the fact that he's supposed to be a super genius.
__________________ Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
I really enjoyed the film. Just think it was overhyped. It wasnt a massive event like No Way Home, which is what I think people were expecting. Especially after the trailer showing Patrick Stewart was in this.
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May 10th, 2022 09:29 PM
