The Film – Short, But Pretty Sweet
I don’t know the true, comic book origin of Dr. Strange, but I don’t think this movie is very far off, given some quick online research. Dr. Strange is a somewhat typical egotistical doctor who is somewhat humbled by a brutal car wreck one night that leaves his hands crippled. In searching for a solution to get his hand functionality back, he travels to Tibet to meet The Ancient One. He spends a great deal of time here, eventually learning that this realm is threatened by another realm and that things are soon going to come to a head. Dr. Strange and his fellow mystical powered cohorts soon find themselves engaged in battle against one of their own, Mordo, who has allied with a demonic force that looks to infiltrate and crush this realm.
I thought the film was pretty entertaining, but kind of short really. I wasn’t expecting a two hour feature, but something closer to even one and half hours would have been preferable. Then again, I suppose this film did do an adequate job of presenting the origin of Dr. Strange and some of the major players in the Dr. Strange character universe, which was likely the primary goal of the feature.
Presentation – Decent
My overall visual take from this feature was lukewarm-to-good. The animation was smooth and pretty slick, nothing about it really made the film any more difficult to watch. At the same time it didn’t really wow me, but it could have been a lot worse. The included audio track was really on par for what you would expect, too; it suffices, but isn’t outstanding.
Extras
There are more extra features on this DVD than I expected for such a release. There are about twenty minutes of clips of some CG cutscenes from Marvel video games like X-Men Legends 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance. There are a couple of trailers for other Marvel movies as well as a five minute preview of an upcoming Marvel DVD entitled “A First Look At the Avenger’s Reborn,” which isn’t looking too enticing if you ask me. There is also a nearly fifteen minute feature on the origin of Dr. Strange as far as the comic books were concerned, which was the most informative and interesting feature included.
Overall – Rent Worthy
Marvel and Dr. Strange fans should give this release a look, but as always, it’s better to rent than to dive right in. As a fairly casual comic fan and some one who didn’t know much about Dr. Strange, but was somewhat interested in him, this was an enjoyable movie, although short and also very low on replay value. A rental should suffice most peoples curiosity.