Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness

 Yes, I dragged myself to the movie theater and watched the new Dr Strange movie. Did I like it? Let me get back to you on that.

 OK, yeah, I liked it. I didn't love it but I enjoyed it and it was worth dragging my exhausted bones out to the theater. Now I'm going to criticize it.

 First thing to say is - if you haven't seen Dr Strange and Avengers Infinity War/End Game, you need to in order for this to make sense. Worse, if you haven't seen the Disney+ series WandaVision, you absolutely need to for this to make sense. Seeing Spiderman: No Way Home, Disney+'s What If...? and one of the later seasons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D would also help... 

 and therein lies the problem.

 The MCU is starting to sag under it's own weight and the fact that you really need to see not only several movies but also a couple of series only available on their proprietary streaming service is an issue.

 That said, given the prerequisites, the movie isn't bad... but I have a few more things to say about it.

 Here Be Spoilers

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Ye Have Been Warned

 OK, despite Dr Strange having the title role and the introduction of the facinating but somewhat under-used character of American Chavez, this is Wanda Maximoff/The Scarlet Witch's movie... and yeah, she's the bad guy.

 Only, she isn't... and this where needing to see WandaVision et al comes in. So, this is the story of a women whose life has been full of tragedy, who is traumatized and broken, who tries to escape in fantasy and dreams... and who unfortunately has the power to re-write reality with her mind. By the end of WandaVision, we hoped that maybe she has found some peace... but instead it appears she found an Evil Book of Evil Magic and now we have traumatized, broken, and Corrupted by the Evil Book of Evil Magic. 

 As Dr Strange tells us early on... the bad guy isn't Wanda. The bad guy is the Evil Book.

 I should say now, my wife had a hard time with this movie. She didn't like that Wanda was the bad guy... that her journey had ended in her corruption. For me, I've latched onto the idea that the bad guy was the Evil Book... and that Wanda, in the end, has a tragic but heroic journey, which leads to her redemption. (Hey, I warned you there would be spoilers).  

 The rest... the multiverse jumping, the cameos of people from other Marvel movies (hi, Sir Patrick, liked you better here than in Picard), the, again sadly under-developed, America Chavez (looking forward to seeing more of her in another movie), the really overdone angst of Dr Strange having relationship issues with his own ego... all made for an interesting movie but really, it was Wanda's story... and like my wife, I didn't love it.