Doctor Strange

Rating: 300 Degrees (Out of 360)

​Woohoo, this was fun.  The wife and I happened to be near an IMAX theater, so we splurged and went all in for 3-D IMAX, scored good seats and floated into the movie.

​This movie puts an awesome franchise in new territory with the advent of magic.  I though the magic to be fun and visually stimulating, but formulaic.  Magic in movies has been so hot for so many years (Harry Potter, LOTR, Hobbit etc.) that I would have liked to see a larger variety of magic.  Benedict learns about 3 spells, 1 for attack, 1 for defense and 1 for travel.  Obviously, with this being an origin story, he doesn't need to learn the spell himself, but others could demo.

​I digress, the visuals were well crafted and mind bending, but somewhat similar to Inception, so not completely unique.  I really liked one of the cameos ... Aladdin's carpet made it to live action!  No, his cape was a lot of fun and made for some good comic relief without Strange needing an actual sidekick.

​Overall, I really liked this one.  And as much as I like the ensemble movies, getting a good origin movie shows Marvel can come full circle and introduce us to new characters without the formula becoming too stale.  I'll be seeing it again ...