Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was released on Friday, May 6, 2022. Dr. Stephen Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, accompanies Benedict Wong’s Wong and Xochitl Gomez’s America Chavez through the multiverse to stop Wanda Maximoff, played by Elizabeth Olsen, from becoming too powerful.
Multiverse of Madness collected over $450 million in the box office Mother’s Day weekend. Since then, the film has made over $500 million worldwide. Though it seems that Marvel fans were highly restless for the release of the movie, Multiverse of Madness has left “the fanbase dazed and confused,” as noted in an article by FandomWire. The new Marvel Cinematic Universe(MCU) movie received a 74% from Rotten Tomatoes, an 87% in Audience Score, and a B+ from CinemaScore.
Matt Neal from ABC Radio stated in a Rotten Tomatoes review that “Ultimately, this film’s genuinely surprising guest spots and Raimi’s dalliances with his dark past are the most memorable bits,” giving the film a 3.5/5.
Matthew Lucas of From the Front Line gives the movie a 3/4, explaining that “This is about as fun as these movies get, even if this never-ending story has long overstayed its welcome.”
Diego Batlle from Ostroscines.com says that “The second half [is] overwhelmingly mechanical at times and at others taxing,” giving the film 3/5. Bennett Campbell Ferguson from Willamette Week thinks that Multiverse in Madness is “basically a feature-length commercial for the WandaVision streaming series and countless other properties,” and gives the film a 2/4.
Paul Whitington from the Irish Independent, who gave the film a 3/5 explains that “The spark and the strangeness of the first film are gone, and while Multiverse Of Madness’s special effects are undeniably splendid, its characterisation and plotting are weak.”
The audience seems to review the movie similarly to critics. Marvel fans say that “the visuals were great but it was very underwhelming,” that the storyline and acting were terrible, and that the film was “all over the place.”
Multiverse of Madness certainly covered a large territory. As Dr. Strange and America traveled through the multiverse in attempts to stop Wanda Maximoff from stealing America’s ability to jump between universes, the new Doctor Strange film continues the storyline from WandaVision with slight regard to Strange’s previous solo film. The movie, though exciting, left fans confused coming out of the theater.
With confused fans, outraged parents, as some believe that the film should have received an R-rating because of the intense violence and thriller aspects, and some theaters refusing to show the film because of LGBTQ characters, Multiverse of Madness was ultimately one of the most surprising MCU films ever.
