Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) Trailer - Review/Reaction

Got to hand it to Kevin Feige. Ever since the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was launched Iron Man in 2008, there has been no looking back. If Spider-Man: No Way Home (NWH) brought all three Spider Man actors together, now Feige has finally made every MCU/Marvel fan's dream come true: bring the X-Men (and possibly The Fantastic Four) into the MCU.

 

Check out the trailer:

 

The Multiverse is upon us and Dr Strange is brought to trial for his actions in NWH. And guess who is there on the panel - Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) himself. If that does not get you excited, it is highly possible that John Krasinski will debut as Reed Richards aka Mr Fantastic. Plus, it looks like Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (or one of her variants) will be the bad gal this time.

 

There is so much to love about this trailer. Sam Raimi's trademark shots. Especially that shot of Shuma-Gorath looks fabulous. I also liked the shot of Dr Strange in a prehistoric looking place. It might be “Savage Land” from the X-Men lore. Not to mention the multiple variants of Doctor Strange himself.

And it is always good to see Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams). 

 

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Image Sources: Marvel Studios, Truenorth Productions, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

 

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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) Teaser - Review/Reaction

The much awaited first teaser for this year's first MCU movie has arrived and has Benedict Cumberbatch returning as the Sorcerer Supreme along with the supporting cast (Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Stuhlbarg).

 

Check out the trailer:

Against Wong's advice, Dr Strange has used an incantation that has opened up the Multiverse. No wonder that we are introduced to an alternate version of our titular character who is not as benevolent as the one we are familiar with. The Sorcerer Supreme reaches out to Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) for fighting this new threat.

 

Genre veteran Sam Raimi (Spider-Man trilogy with Tobey Maguire), replaces Scott Derrickson as the director. Astute movie fans would remember this reference to Dr Strange in Spider-Man 2:

 

Another nod was the fact that Peter Parker's workplace (Joe's Pizza) was located on Bleecker Street - Dr Strange's Sanctum Santorum is situated at 177A Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, New York City. Now the circle is complete with Sam helming this movie. Hopefully, he will repeat his magic again. Speaking of Scott Derrickson, it seems he was interested in bringing Namor in the sequel. Perhaps, this was the reason he left the project due to “creative differences”. Nevertheless the Sinister auteur has been replaced by one of the legends in the genre and we are getting our first Horror movie from MCU.

 

As I had mentioned in another post, Benedict Cumberbatch seems a bit off in his role as the Sorcerer Supreme. The fire and passion that he brought to the screen as Sherlock is missing here. We get a brief glimpse of Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer in wedding gown. The teaser promises a lot of action set pieces as can be expected from a MCU movie. I do look forward to the teaming up of Scarlet Witch and Dr Strange. Wanda almost singlehandedly defeated Thanos and was one of the few Avengers who have accomplished this. Wanda and Stephen working together would make for a very powerful combo.

 

Plus, I am interested to see what other surprises the Multiverse throws at us - may be introduce us to couple of X-Men....

Trivia

• The Octopus like creature that Dr Strange is battling is Shuma-Gorath.
• The movie also marks the live action debut of America Chavez. The superheroine is played by Xochitl Gomez.
  

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Image Sources: Marvel Studios, Truenorth Productions, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

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Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law in 'Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows'

The movie is based on the canonical short story The Final Problem.

As indicated in the first movie, Prof Moriarty (Jared Harris) is working in the shadows (pun intended) to initiate a war on a global scale. Dr Watson (Jude Law) has moved out of 221 B leaving Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr) to his own devices. Holmes is on the trail of Moriarty, gathering all possible evidence.

Dr Watson’s impending marriage and the presence of a gypsy are 2 subplots incorporated into the story credited to Michele Mulroney and Kieran Mulroney. The finale at Reichenbach Falls has been executed to perfection by Guy Ritchie and his crew.

Downey Jr and Jude Law continue their crowd pleasing and fun portrayals from the first movie. The same is true of the other returning cast members as well. The 3 main newcomers are Jared Harris, Stephen Fry and Noomi Rapace.

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Jared Harris is mesmerizing as Prof Moriarty. His is a masterful performance that successfully sells the concept of an accomplished academic who also happens to be a criminal mastermind. Watching Harris’s performance sent me into raptures. This, my dear friends, is Prof Moriarty. The Moriarty who is every bit the intellectual equal of Sherlock, only far more devious (as rightly said by Adler in the previous movie). This is the Moriarty I had envisioned when reading The Final Problem and briefly in The Valley of Fear. A Moriarty who is subtle and ruthless.

Hats off, Mr. Harris. A truly Splendid performance!

Another great aspect of this movie is that, for the first time Moriarty is actually shown as a Professor in an academic environment. I have not seen this in the Granada adaptation or the Russian adaptation or for that matter in any other. In yet another nice nod to the canon, some of the characters in the movie refer to Prof Moriarty not by his name, but only as “He”. As Holmes spoke in The Valley of Fear about Moriarty – “No less! When any of that party talk about ‘He’ you know whom they mean. There is one predominant ‘He’ for all of them.”

Prof Moriarty with one of his students

Full credits to Warner Bros and Guy Ritchie for bringing Mr. Harris onboard and doing full justice to the character of Prof Moriarty!

Stephen Fry appears as Mycroft Holmes, the elder brother of Sherlock Holmes. As readers familiar with the canon will know, Sherlock and Mycroft indulge in a game of out-deducing each other in The Greek Interpreter where we are introduced to Mycroft. In a nice nod to the canon, we have Sherlock and Mycroft doing the same in the movie as well. 

However, unlike the canon Watson joins in as well, leading Mycroft to conclude that perhaps Watson is not as dim-witted as he is often made out to be. I thought this was a nice touch and a reference to the bumbling image of Watson as portrayed by Nigel Bruce in the Basil Rathbone movies. Fry makes an adequate Mycroft, though the physical differences between him and Downey Jr can be quite jarring at times.

Stephen Fry as Mycroft Holmes

Noomi Rapace (Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Golden Tattoo movies) plays Madam Simza, a gypsy whose brother works for Moriarty. Rapace does her best with the role given to her.

Jude Law shares excellent chemistry with Downey Jr and this is one of the best things about these movies. The sequence at the gypsy camp is a fine example. 

Robert Downey Jr is an excellent actor and I am pretty sure, given the right material to work with, he can be anyone he wishes to be. In the first movie, I was not convinced about his performance due to his shenanigans with McAdams’s Adler. Thankfully, in the sequel Adler leaves the screen quite early. This leaves Downey Jr to portray Holmes in a significantly more canonical tone and he is electrifying as Sherlock in all the scenes he shares with Harris’s Moriarty.

The very first meeting between the rivals is nicely done. But the chess sequence at the end of the movie is truly out of this world. The sequence captures the essence of the rivalry between Sherlock and Moriarty – 2 geniuses at loggerheads with each other. The picturization of the ensuing fight scene is another gem as well. Ritchie shows the fight at a metaphysical level and elevates the scene from being just another routine climactic fight. Great job, Ritchie!

Does he remind you of someone else....

Interestingly, Downey Jr’s makeup in the train sequence reminded me of The Joker. Coincidence? Considering that both the movie franchises are from Warner Bros, probably not.

I also liked the Wine Cellar scene where Holmes, Watson and Madam Simza meet a terrorist who makes bombs. The way Holmes calmly and masterfully deduced the hidden exit instantly reminded of the Canonical Holmes. This is Sherlock Holmes. A calm, cool thinking machine who has his emotions in check and goes about his business in a truly masterful and assertive way.

Guy Ritchie has done an amazing job, right from the casting choices to the action sequences. The action scenes that show Holmes planning his moves ahead are more inspired this time, as not all of them go as per Holmes's predictions. The escape sequence through the forest though dragged on considerably and could have used some editing. The pony scenes with Holmes also did not really tickle the funny bone.

Hans Zimmer has produced another outstanding soundtrack that enhances the movie’s tone. The soundtrack “The Romanian Wind” in particular, is exceptional. His music is the very soul of this movie franchise.

Not to be outdone, the other crew members have also made handsome contributions to deliver a classic rendition of Sherlock Holmes. The cinematography by Philippe Rousselot, editing by James Herbert, production design by Sarah Greenwood and costume design by Jenny Beavan deserve special mention.

Jared Harris as Prof Moriarty

This turned out to be a long review. I just loved this movie and would heartily recommend to readers who are familiar with the Sherlock Holmes canon and would like to see the finest onscreen depiction of Prof Moriarty.

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Image Source: Warner Bros. Pictures

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Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes (2009)

As the movie opens, we meet Dr Watson and Inspector Lestrade racing in a horse-driven carriage to an unknown destination. A medium-sized man (Robert Downey Jr) is also in a hurry as he quickly dispatches some unnamed hoodlums and prevents the villain Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) from making a sacrifice of a young woman. Thus begins our introduction to Sherlock Holmes in Guy Ritchie’s adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s renowned fictional detective.

Jude Law and Kelly Reilly as Dr Watson and Mary Morstan

Soon, Lord Blackwood is hanged for his dastardly deeds and is pronounced dead. Dr Watson is about to be engaged to Mary Morstan (Kelly Reilly). Even as Holmes tries his best to thwart the impending engagement, Blackwood returns from the dead to menace England once again. Also thrown in the mix is Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), who has been employed by Professor Moriarty to manipulate Holmes into retrieving a device (the MacGuffin of this movie).

In a considerable departure from the canon, Holmes has a very personal and non-platonic relationship with Irene Adler.

Yes, definitely not the Canonical Holmes....

As Sherlockians know, Holmes is quite distrusting of the opposite sex and his only interaction with Irene Adler is in A Scandal in Bohemia. I will not go into too many details, but suffice to say that this interaction was quite brief and decidedly impersonal.

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Moving on to the supporting cast, Jude Law gives a fine performance as Watson. He is every bit the canonical Watson, a strong-minded and decent individual, who also happens to the ally of Sherlock Holmes. Law presents a competent version of Watson along the likes of David Burke, Edward Hardwicke and Vitaly Solomin.

Eddie Marsan makes a remarkable Lestrade. Mark Strong does his best with the given material. Interestingly, Strong has the requisite physical attributes to be Sherlock Holmes.

Mark Strong and Robert Downey Jr as Lord Blackwood and Sherlock Holmes

The movie is mainly focused on the bromance between the residents of 221 B and the ladies unfortunately have nothing much to do. Kelly Reilly and Rachel McAdams do perform the requisite duties of providing the necessary eye candy. Geraldine James makes a fleeing appearance in a couple of scenes as Mrs Hudson.

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Image Sources: Warner Bros. Pictures, Collider, Film, Hotflick

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