Doctor Strange: The Multiverse of Madness (2022)

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olson, Bendict Wong

Director: Sam Raimi

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, frightening images, and some language

 

Mankind is depraved.  In fact, I am depraved.  To take it further, you are depraved.

If you want to stop reading now, be my guest.  We have a heavy topic today, and it may not be for the faint of heart.

Let’s get straight to the point.

Let me make one small announcement before I begin my review: I’m doing away with plot summaries.  I get headaches just thinking about trying to write a 1-2 paragraph summary of everything I read and watch.  That’s not why I’m here folks.  I’m here to write reviews.  Chances are, if you are here reading my review, you already know the basic plot and story structure of the movie or book I’m writing about.  So, we’re going to just get straight to the point in each post from here on out and maybe save you some time by cutting out 200 words each article. 🙂

Now, into the thick of it.

Wanda is bad.  I mean really bad.  No punches pulled here.  In fact, the movie gives you the punch almost immediately.  Then there’s not a whole lot of mystery left for most of the movie.  There are twists and turns of course, none of them surprising (at least, not for me, but I’m also watching this movie months after release mind you.)

Dark magic abounds.  Not even just dark magic, Satan himself seems to be in our midst.  In fact, his “demons” (though not mentioned to be his) are present both physically and in conversation.  This movie has nearly zero light moments and very few laughs, though sad attempts are made.  It feels dark, ominous, and hopeless.

Maybe that’s because it is dark, ominous . . . and nearly if not completely hopeless.

Wanda has lost her soul to the Darkhold, a book that Dr. Strange says is of the damned and elsewhere in the comics is known as The Book of Sins.  The name of this book of dark witchcraft gives itself away; truly, it holds Wanda in a darkness so consuming she may as well be a slave.

Death and destruction follow her, though Wanda calls it merciful at first.  I believe she uses the term “reasonable”.  By the end of the movie, we do come to realize that the beginning was indeed reasonable from a dark perspective, there was a chance to survive her fury, her sin, her desire.  In the end, there seems to be no escape.

Here’s what you might not like to hear folks: we have a lot we can learn from this movie, scary and dark as it may be.

We all are just like Wanda.  Woah, woah you say?  Oh yes, I know you probably don’t practice the dark arts, you probably haven’t murdered every person who got in the way of what you wanted, you probably haven’t traveled time and space to get to the universe you wanted with the outcome in life that you desired.  But we are all depraved.

Being depraved does not mean we sin as much as we are able as often as we are able, but it does mean that we are capable of unfathomable sin.  Now, God is gracious (even to those not saved) and has put limits on wickedness until the end of all things; however, there is still great wickedness in the heart of man.

We cannot escape our own hearts.  Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick!  One version says it is “beyond cure.”

In our heart of hearts, we all have longings and desires that subtly lead us down specific paths in life if we are not careful.  Wanda was not careful.  Wanda’s deceitful heart was allowed to roam free (WandaVision was only the beginning folks . . .)  The result?  James 4:1-3 sheds some light on the issue for us.

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?  Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?  You desire and do not have, so you murder.  You covet and cannot obtain so you fight and quarrel.  You do not have because you do not ask.  You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.

Wanda quickly descends into a mad world of murder, chaos, and destruction.  Will all of us become murderers?  No, I don’t believe so.  Are we all capable of murder?  Yes, we are.  But is there hope somewhere?  There must be . . . let’s look to Wanda one more time.

Wanda had lost everything when the end credits of Avengers: Endgame rolled around.  Then she lost everything again when she attempted to set up the life she wanted in WandaVision.  Now she’s back but we find out she was really never okay in the first place and has certainly not recovered from her traumatic childhood AND adulthood losses yet.  She copes by selling her soul as we’ve discussed, but at the end of it all Wanda makes the right decision.  Wait a second . . . she makes the right decision?

Yes, in fact she makes the decision to let alternate-universe-Wanda raise her two beautiful boys and live the good life rather than ruin it and try to take that life for herself.  This decision was presented to her at the very beginning of the movie; however, she refused and thus we have a whole movie of her chasing down the ability to travel the multiverse.  Could she have not made the decision sooner and saved the lives of so many who stood in her way?  She could have, but she didn’t because she’s depraved.  We cannot see our own depravity (though others are more than capable of seeing it) and wander blindly until someone shows us the light.  In fact, Wanda does not come to see herself for the monster she truly is until she gets what she wants.  But it turns out, all she sees is her precious little boys cower in fear before her new and scary self.

We all have a decision placed before us and it follows us for all our lives, what are we going to do with our depravity?  Wanda did not acknowledge her depravity and instead chased her own desires through to the bitter end at which point she lost the only thing she had left: her own soul.  We are faced with the same problem, but there’s a little more hope for us than for Wanda who is stuck in the godless world of the MCU.

We have a Savior, Christ the King, humble and victorious, who cannot be defeated by any witch, demon, or magic-wielding sorcerer.  He provides the justification and righteousness we so desperately need and can cleanse us from every last bit of our depravity; however, we will not get everything we want.  God may grant us what we desire, but it will not always happen that way.  Believers are promised tribulation, but we have the ultimate hope of eternity to guide us through the dark days we may encounter.  God will never leave us.  If only Wanda had that same Hope and same Presence to comfort her.

I’ve spent a lot of time talking about Wanda.  I need to take some time to discuss Dr. Strange.

Dr. Strange presents us with a troubling parallel to our culture.  In his efforts to save the universe, Dr. Strange finds himself going down dark paths (following Wanda’s example essentially) for the greater good.  This is a quandary presented at other times in the MCU: what and who should we be willing to sacrifice for the greater good?  Where does the line of hard decision and even death end?  But now we find the decision has been complicated further: Dr. Strange doesn’t just need to save the universe, he needs to save the multiverse.

Our culture is spinning out of control because of the vast number of genders, races, minorities, and oppressed peoples we are trying to accommodate and make happy.  Turns out, when you go down that path, it never ends.  There is no legitimate or plausible way for multiversal appeasement to happen.  And we see this played out perfectly with Dr. Strange.  When you save one universe (or multiple as is the case here), there are inevitably others that must now be fixed, remedied, and appeased.  The cycle never ends (luckily for Disney, because that just means more money.)  God set logical and good boundaries for us within His Word: one race, two sexes/genders, one world, one God.  To reach beyond that is to invite chaos, or shall I say, madness?

I must give credit where credit is due: Dr. Strange gives us a glimpse (miniscule as it may be) of the forgiveness offered to us in Christ when he gives Wanda the chance to make the right decision.  This analogy falls short because in all actuality, Wanda is unable to do the right thing because she is godless and without Christ; but that aside, it is never too late to seek forgiveness from the hands of our Father.  Whether we’ve slaughtered 100 men, whether we’ve lied or cheated, whether we’ve cursed our friends, or whether we simply refuse to be kind, God’s forgiveness is available at any time on our path.  We have until the moment we die to believe in the mercies and grace of God.  He will cleanse us, we need only to be still and call out to Him.

Now to deal with the content issues.

There is apparently (according to the sorcerer supreme) a difference between magic and witchcraft.  Both can be evil – we’ve seen the evils of magic in previous MCU films, specifically Doctor Strange the first.  However, Wanda presents us with a new (or should I say, old) level of evil that is far stronger than any good or bad magic it might encounter.  This is not a family appropriate film, if you still aren’t sure about that.  This is full of magic and witchery (and death and mayhem too, but we’ll get to that) to levels not yet encountered in the MCU and I hope not to encounter it again.

We all know Disney is woke, politically correct, and incapable of holding its head up or growing a backbone.  But I was surprised I had not heard about the rather important presence of two mothers in this movie.  I hear conservatives raging before nearly every new movie these days speaking forth all the rumors they have heard about LGBT content.  Things are starting to slip through the cracks because we are worrying about the issues Disney is telling us are bigger.  The presence of two married women who are the mothers of the main child character is nearly lost in the melee of magic and witchcraft here.  I was shocked to not have known this was coming!  Christians, if we continue to allow ourselves to be caught up in the minor issues as opposed to the major issues, we are failing to be godly ambassadors of our Savior.

Know this: I am not saying that fighting against witchcraft and despising the evil in some fantasy movies is wrong or not a major issue.  That is an important issue!  However, in our culture, we have failed to teach at least one generation the importance of standing on the word and truth of God from the beginning and now here we are, watching lesbians, gays, transgender men and women, and sexually depraved people infiltrate our homes through our movies, our music, our books, our entertainment, our social media, you name it.  Need I remind you of my review of Onward?  I warned you then and I warn you now: they will move forward as slowly as they need to with sin and depravity to make it acceptable even for those of us whose names are written in the Book of Life.

Before this becomes long enough to be a doctoral thesis, let me move on to the violence. 

We have not seen the likes of this within the MCU.  The bodies stack high, and we get some closeups of death, butchery, mayhem, blood, gore, and all the things we haven’t had to deal with in previous films.  I realize there is a fascination and obsession with horror/thriller films right now.  There are always at least two horror flicks showing at the local theater every time I check.  Yet, I believe Marvel should have maintained its past boundaries to remain a family-friendly franchise.

But remember depravity.  Mankind is only going to get worse, not better.  Marvel’s glory days are over, and they have proved it quickly with Eternals and The Multiverse of Madness.  

I will not elaborate further on the violence; I don’t believe there is a need.  If you have not concluded by now that this isn’t a movie to watch, then there is nothing else I can say to dissuade you.  Though the story did make me think, though I found moral applications, though I enjoyed writing 2000 words for you to read, this movie should not make your watch list.

And with that, my dear reading friends, I bid you adieu.  Go read a good book and skip Marvel’s newest addition.  You can thank me later.