I really was looking forward to Doctor Strange. This was even before the cast and director were announced, because I felt like this would bring something quite different to an otherwise repetitive MCU. Now, what we got wasn't bad. But for me it doesn't win any medals at all. The direction under Scott Derrickson is great, Tilda Swinton and Chiwetel Ejiofor are also great, and the special effects and visual elements are fantastic. But the rest? It's a big meh.

Where to start? Well, Derrickon is a known horror director, and yes - a Disney made horror film wouldn't exactly happen, but something with a darker tone would have been appreciated. Parts of this film were cringingly unfunny, when jokes were trying to be made. I remember in my screening, one guy behind me found every joke so funny that he kicked the back of my chair and was balling with laugher (there's always one in a Marvel film) and each to their own, but this is definitely Marvel's unfunniest film, and that's maybe because Derrickson isn't a director who can do comedy? I don't think his direction is bad, I rather liked it, but Marvel's control over this just made it quite flat.

The plot is a copy and paste of Iron Man. I'd explain it all but you know the drill, arrogant guy realises he needs to stop being selfish to stop the evil villain and ends up being respected or whatever. I know that Ant Man has elements of this too, but I really liked Ant Man for it's heist narrative and elements, and the fact that Hank Pym became an tutor to Scott Lang, which I'm sure many people were expecting Pym to be the main protagonist and so on, but a lot was changed which worked well. With Doctor Strange however I didn't get that, and I still felt that repetitive theme going through it all the way to the end. Mads Mikkelsen was a waste of a villain, an character who could have done so much more but ended up just being a pawn of Dormammu. Such a talented actor who ended up being cast so sparingly just like his character in Rouge One. Poor Mads.

Now, whilst we're on the subject of actors, let's talk about my biggest gripe, Doctor Strange himself, Benedict Cumberbatch. I do think that Cumberbatch is great actor by the way, but I feel like the casting was a missed opportunity. Fans were begging for him to play Strange which isn't a bad thing but it became so predictable in speculation before this, I groaned at the idea of it. He's so overused these days that it seemed as though someone else with more potential may have better fitted the role. I felt like someone such as Ethan Hawke would have been a better choice and I know Cumberbatch is a big name but big names don't always do the best jobs. His acting isn't awful but his accent is so over the top and off-putting I did struggle to watch. It was such a headache hearing it, and I know Strange is American but if they had made him British just for the sake of not having an awful accent I would have taken that straight away. And now they say that Strange will take the place of Iron Man as leader of the Avengers? I really hope not. 

There are far worse Marvel movies but this one just niggles me. A sequel doesn't excite me in the slightest, and seeing him pop up in Thor Ragnarok was pointless and uninteresting for me. Maybe you feel different, and that's fine. But Doctor Strange could have been something else entirely, and sadly it wasn't what I wanted or expected it to be.