The heroes of Earth 616 — that’s the official title of the Marvel film-verse; and yes, someone has been keeping count — aren’t infallible. Akin to their counterparts in comics, they corrupt pretty easily.

In fact, in Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness all it takes is a mini-series (Wanda-Vision in this case), trauma, slow-seething anger, and a psyche on the brink of rupturing. The heroes may grit their teeth and live a façade of normalcy until they snap, for the tiniest of reasons.

In this film directed by Sam Raimi — what a spectacular choice he is, by the way — the madness is brought to the table by Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), a repressed superheroine who has telekinetic and telepathic abilities.

Originally a mutant and offspring of Magneto, the X-Men villain in comics, she is not a mutant in the Marvel film continuity. Here she gets her power from experimentation and exposure to the mindstone, one of the stones Thanos used to erase half of the universe from existence in Avengers: Infinity War.

Wanda lives in a secluded house, in a fake mental fabrication of normalcy, with two of her kids who do not exist. Somewhere else, America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) — a girl who can jump through realities — and ‘another’ Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) land in the middle of New York with a giant octopus-demon (listed as Gargantos, the demon is a reimagining of Shuma-Gorath, a multi-dimensional major villain from the comics).

After gouging out the demon’s eye, our Stephen Strange and Wong (Benedict Wong), the current Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, take America to their sanctuary. Soon, Stephen and America are dimension-hopping through parallel universes trying to get away from a crazed Wanda.

Almost anyone, even if they do not know the bare essentials of Marvel film-verse’s back-history, can enjoy Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

To the audience’s delight, they land in a world that features the first instance of the Illuminati, an assembly of superheroes that features cameos from Mordu (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Captain Carter (Haley Atwell), Captain Marvel (Lashana Lynch), Black Bolt (Anson Mount), Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and the first appearance of — YAY! — Mr. Fantastic (John Krasinski).

America, we learn, is a universal singularity — ie there is only one of her in endless streams of realities. How do they know, someone asks: well, know the déjà vu we see in dreams; your mind is actually tuning into parallel realities because we’re all interlinked in a way. When you can’t dream of circumstances involving yourself, well that means you do not exist elsewhere.

Not the most scientific of explanations, but in the scope of an adventure film that features a sentient, flying cape…yeah, sure, whatever you say, as long as the entertainment value is there.

That, of course, is there.

Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is what I now refer to as ‘global popcorn’. The storytelling, production and the characters aren’t just for America or comic book aficionados. Almost anyone, even if they do not know the bare essentials of the Marvel film-verse’s back-history, can enjoy the film.

The credit goes to Kevin Feige, screenwriter Michael Waldron (the series Loki) and Sam Raimi.

This is Sam Raimi’s film; his handwriting on the screen is undeniable. Characters enter, exit and pop into frames like rejects from a B-grade horror film. Bruce Campbell — Raimi’s friend, lucky charm and the lead of the original Evil Dead franchise — makes his token cameo, while Olsen is a riot when she magics herself into locations with the body mannerisms of the undead. These are classic, parodic, campy yet seriously fun Raimi moments.

The bits are a hoot and, even though our world and all realities are imperiled (what else is new), there is a carefree jovialness in this enterprise.

Like a zombie who can smell the living, the audience can smell the entertainment from a mile away…that is why people are, and will, stand in cues to get tickets.

Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is rated PG-13. There is nothing ‘adult’ about the film, including the LGBTQ reference; seriously, you’ve seen things that are much more controversial in movies

Published in Dawn, EOS, May 15th, 2022