Tag: Benedict Cumberbatch

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Post author By Mark
Post date May 6, 2022

We’re now over 30 entries into the MCU and in that time we’ve seen just about everything from epic space-operas to tales of gods and devils. What we’ve rarely seen in the MCU is a film that truly embraces the style of its director (Thor: Ragnarok aside); that contorts the usual trappings of a Marvel movie to fit around an auteur rather than the other way around. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness fundamentally feels like a Sam Raimi film through and through, and that is a massive win for a franchise that has seemed to grow increasingly similar across instalments. Bringing with him heavier elements of horror and a unique visual eye for the camera, Sam Raimi has crafted one of the most stylistic entries into the Marvel canon, bursting with energy from start to finish.

When America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), a mysterious young girl with the power to create portals through universes, arrives in New York City with a demonic monster hot on her heels, Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and the now Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong) work quickly to intercept her. Believing that her powers could inadvertently cause irreparable damage to the entire multiverse, Strange turns to an isolating and clearly traumatised Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) for assistance in protecting the girl. As Wanda’s true motives become clear, however, Strange and America are forced to go on the run between universes in a bid to protect the girl and find a way to lock away the evil pursuing them.

What could have been another run-of-the-mill Marvel film is so elevated by Raimi’s style; the usual visual effects heavy madness given new life with inventive camera movements and editing choices that place a lot of emphasis on the horror elements Raimi brings to the table. For die-hard fans of The Evil Dead and Drag Me to Hell wondering whether Raimi would lean more towards his horror roots or his Spider-Man history, fear not, this is as close to a body-horror fright-fest in the MCU as possible. Long, suspense-filled shots end with shocking jump scares, kills are gorier than ever and Danny Elfman’s eerie score – filled with shrieking strings and ominous wailing – add weight to what could have been a far more lighthearted trip through the multiverse. Raimi even goes so far as to add in an element of the slasher genre, with the constantly looming presence of Strange and America’s pursuer never far behind, providing an urgency to their actions that makes for an appropriately panicked, fast-paced affair.

Somewhat expectedly, after months and months of post-No Way Home speculation, there are plenty of fan service multiverse moments here sure to please fans, even if they can’t possibly fulfil every wild wish and fantasy. Reports that these were added in following the release of the latest Spider-Man, whilst unconfirmed, would prove reasonable, as this is also where the film’s pacing slows down significantly, as it attempts to unload chunks of exposition at you to explain its, at times, incredibly confusing central premise whilst throwing new faces at you. These appearances are by no means necessary, and don’t further the overarching MCU plot in any significant ways, but Raimi manages to have a lot of fun with the surprises, going in unexpected and gleefully macabre directions that only the man who gave us the off-kilter masterpiece Evil Dead 2 could pull off.

As is the case with majority of Raimi’s films, there is a healthy heaping of cheesy humour thrown in for good measure; a lot of which doesn’t work in the usual Marvel manner. It isn’t bad by any means, but with everything going on and with the audience constantly being swept from location to location, it falls by the wayside in the bigger picture. Still the final act does feature some of the best prosthetics work in all of Marvel, in a scene that could have been pulled directly from the Evil Dead franchise; showing one of the biggest proponents for campy humour at his campy best.

Being only his second solo outing since the original Doctor Strange in 2016, there is a lot of room here for an exploration of Strange’s character and how the tumultuous events of his Avengers appearances have affected him. Michael Waldron – writer of last year’s Loki – tackles the material on a much more intimate level, crafting a multi-dimensionally sad story for Strange and any potential hope for a life beyond his superhero duties with former flame Christine (Rachel McAdams). It’s an emotionally meaty storyline that Cumberbatch sinks his teeth into, giving less of the arrogant surgeon that we saw in 2016 and portraying the former Sorcerer Supreme as a much richer character who has seen and evolved from all he has experienced.

On a similar journey of self-discovery is Wanda who, following on from the events of WandaVision longs for the children she has lost, with Elizabeth Olsen taking the characters to some truly dark places in her desperation. It’s her best performance as the Scarlet Witch to date, as she continues to make this deeply tragic woman one of the MCU’s most interesting characters.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness won’t be to everyone’s taste. It’s a drastic shift in the tone we have come to know, given Marvel’s miraculous willingness to commit to Sam Raimi’s vision and unique style. Cumberbatch and Olsen are the best they have ever been, telling a touching, intimate story on such an enormous scale whilst Raimi ensures we are always entertained, constantly finding inventive filmic techniques and genre trappings to tell an MCU story in a bold new way. Forget Wong’s warnings, you’d be mad not to dive into this multiverse.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness stars Benedict Cumberpatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Xochitl Gomez, Benedict Wong, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Bruce Campbell & Michael Stuhlbarg – In cinemas now.

9/10

Tags Benedict Cumberbatch, Benedict Wong, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Doctor Strange, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Elizabeth Olsen, Marvel, Marvel Studios, Rachel McAdams, Sam Raimi, Xochitl Gomez

Movie Reviews

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Post author By Mark
Post date December 20, 2021

It’s the most wonderful time of the year and no, we’re not talking about Christmas, we’re talking about the new Spider-Man film No Way Home! Quite possibly one of the most hyped films in MCU history, there was a lot riding on Tom Holland’s latest outing as the web-slinger and sufficed to say No Way Home lives up to all these expectations and then some; a more mature chapter in Peter Parker’s story that feels like an appropriate culmination of everything Holland has gone through and a celebration of the character’s rich on-screen history. Despite the all-star lineup of the web-head’s greatest foes, director Jon Watts never lets the story slip away from Peter, telling a quintessentially Spider-Man story that perfectly straddles the line between huge, explosive action and the everyday struggles of the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man.

Peter Parker’s (Holland) life is in a shambles after Mysterio unceremoniously ousts his identity as Spider-Man to the world at the end of Far From Home, prompting the young Avenger to turn to Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) in an effort to erase the world’s knowledge of this fact and restore some semblance of normality to the lives of Peter and those closest to him. When this inevitably goes awry, Strange and Parker unwittingly fracture the multiverse, causing villains from all manner of non-Disney owned, Sony produced Spider-Man films to tumble into the MCU, including Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock, Jamie Foxx’s Electro and Willem Dafoe’s (all-time great) Green Goblin. Now tasked with capturing these intruders before they can wreak havoc on his universe, Spider-Man is forced to contend with the full weight of his actions and the true responsibility of being a hero if he has any hope of saving the world once again.

Reassembling these characters from previous films may seem on its face an obvious case of fan service, but No Way Home consistently finds fresh angles to approach these characters without tarnishing their legacy; natural extensions of previous narratives or chances to redeem an ill-received prior outing rather than simply being well-known punching bags for Spidey to wail on. Jamie Foxx’s Electro for example has far more personality this time around, free from the shackles of his nerdy, awkward persona in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and now a laid-back, wise-cracking bad-ass; a far more appropriate character for Foxx to play and one that he excels at.

At the other end of the spectrum is Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock, whose story wrapped up perfectly in Spider-Man 2. He certainly didn’t need more screen-time but what we get here is a fantastically fun and fascinating furthering of the character audiences know and love, with Molina hamming it up in the best way possible as the medically grumpy fish-out-of-water scientist turned supervillain. Those big, bombastic action sequences are all well and good but it’s the quieter moments that really justify Doc Ock’s return; a tortured soul desperate for a reprieve from the voices in his head and, like Peter, a return to the somewhat normal.

However it’s Willem Dafoe who cements his place as the greatest on-screen Spidey villain, slipping back into Green Goblin almost 20 years later and making it look completely effortless. On an acting level alone it’s fascinating to watch Dafoe contort his face and switch between the two personalities at war within Norman Osborn’s head on a dime; his voice dropping to a menacing growl as a sneer spreads across his face. But it’s the energy of pure, chaotic evil that he brings to the MCU that makes him Holland’s fiercest foe to date, wanting nothing more than to make Spider-Man suffer and relishing every second of pain he puts him through. Screenwriters Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna do a great job ensuring they aren’t just trading on audience goodwill, building on the foundation of Norman’s lust for power established in 2002’s Spider-Man and taking it to the logical next step as he covets an entirely new universe to subject to his will.

In a film this crowded it might be easy for Holland’s Spider-Man to play second fiddle but – despite all the colossal world expansion and inevitable sequel set-up – No Way Home very much feels like the next chapter of Peter Parker’s story. With that comes an almost perfect balance between the small-scale problems that define a good Spider-Man story – girl troubles, college admissions and otherwise balancing the mundane with the extraordinary – alongside the huge, multiverse-ending stakes. This is still a young boy coming to terms with his responsibilities as a hero and the stakes of not committing fully to either of the lives he is attempting to live have never been felt more than they are here. Cumberbatch is an excellent and intriguing choice to shepherd Peter into that next phase of his journey, not as paternal as Iron Man and certainly not as nefarious as Mysterio, Doctor Strange doesn’t shy away from delivering hard truths, a necessary push that makes for some incredibly satisfying moments when the going gets tough.

No matter how crazy the plot may get we are always locked into Peter and how he approaches this latest challenge, particularly how it affects those close to him and his sweet relationship with MJ (Zendaya), who finally comes into her own as a central protagonist rather than a quirky side-character. This being an MCU film, things never get too dour (perhaps to some viewers chagrin) and the jokes fly thick and fast, with Jacob Batalon’s Ned stealing every scene he is in with absolutely pitch perfect comedic timing, never failing to have the audience guffawing at even the most juvenile of jokes. But this is Holland’s film and it is the best he has ever been in the role, due in large part to the amount of emotionally heavy material thrown at him in the script; we feel the desperation in Peter’s actions and the weight of what he must do to correct the mistakes he has made. No spoilers here but it warrants mentioning that – following a third act that ranks up there with Avengers: Endgame in terms of sheer wish-fulfilment awesomeness – the ending is one of the most cathartic, triumphant conclusions in all of the MCU; a perfect jumping off point should they (most probably) continue to further Spider-Man’s story but also an incredibly satisfying conclusion should this truly be the end, something neither of the other actors who have played the wall crawler can claim to have had.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is easily the best of Jon Watt’s trilogy and perhaps more impressively one of, if not the best Spider-Man film ever. The culmination of Peter Parker’s story as a young, inexperienced web-slinger is a rollicking rollercoaster of fun and action sure, but one that manages to pack big stakes and crushing emotional weight onto Holland’s shoulders that he handles beautifully. The returning villains are all an absolute blast to spend time with again, the surprises we can’t spoil will have audiences in a fervour and the supporting players are all genuinely excellent in the way they impact Peter’s journey from boy to Spider-Man. Don’t let the title fool you, with this film Tom Holland proves definitively that he is absolutely at home as the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man.

Spider-Man: No Way Home stars Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jamie Foxx, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Marisa Tomei, Jacob Batalon, J.K. Simmons, Jon Favreau, Tony Revolori & Benedict Wong – In cinemas now.

10/10

Tags Alfred Molina, Benedict Cumberbatch, Benedict Wong, J.K. Simmons, Jacob Batalon, Jamie Foxx, Jon Favreau, Jon Watts, Marisa Tomei, Marvel, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tom Holland, Willem Dafoe, Zendaya

Movie Reviews

The Courier

Post author By Mark
Post date April 2, 2021

Benedict Cumberbatch’s latest film The Courier is yet another notch in his belt of quintessentially British films set during war time, and despite its familiar storyline, it is further proof that he is one of the finest actors working today and isn’t content to rest on his MCU laurels when it comes to telling riveting, emotionally stirring stories. This time around Cumberbatch is joined by Russian actor Merab Ninidze in expounding the true exploits of an ordinary British businessman tasked with ferrying Soviet secrets out of Russia in an effort to prevent Nuclear War. This pairing is by far the film’s greatest strength, with the chemistry between the actors acting as the glue which holds the film together through its many tonal shifts and genre switches. That might sound like a lot from a fairly standard espionage plot but director Dominic Cooke takes it in stride, crafting a surprisingly funny and lighthearted caper which isn’t afraid to steer into more uncomfortable territory to do justice to the story of Greville Wynne.

In his day-to-day business as a salesman, Wynne (Cumberbatch) is a largely unremarkable individual, wooing potential clients to scrape together a living for wife Sheila (Jessie Buckley) and son Andrew (Keir Hills). When his particular brand of international trading presents an opportunity for a joint operation between MI6 and the CIA to obtain Soviet secrets from defecting GRU colonel Oleg Penkovsky (Ninidze), Greville is approached by Dickie Franks (Angus Wright) and Emily Donovan (Rachel Brosnahan) from the respective agencies with an offer to serve his country. What begins as an initial trip to Moscow to arrange contact between Penkovsky and the secret services soon turns into a full-scale operation as Wynne travels back and forth between Russia and Britain under the pretence of business, all the while ferrying Soviet secrets that could be the defining factor in de-escalating nuclear tensions between Russia and America. As the men’s friendship deepens and Wynne’s trips become more frequent, the threat of capture increases, with increased Soviet surveillance threatening to bring the entire operation crashing down.

For a film about the true story of men that helped stop nuclear war, the tone of The Courier is surprisingly light for the first half of the film. This is largely due to Abel Korzeniowski‘s jaunty, upbeat score which accompanies many of Greville’s earlier dealings with Petrovsky and other Russian businessmen. It goes a long way towards emphasising the innocence with which Wynne approaches his task and the fun-loving nature of the man. Kept largely in the dark about the actual secrets he is ferrying, there is a sense that the entire endeavour is very James Bond-ish to Greville and it is not until the stakes are made abundantly (and violently) clear later in the piece that the score shifts to a more menacing, tense affair – emphasising the uncomfortable revelation that the British businessman is faced with. Cumberbatch is far more lively in this performance than say his turn as Alan Turing in The Imitation Game (another overtly British production) and that energy goes a long way towards investing you in the story. There is a sense that he has made mistakes in his past and isn’t the stand-up citizen he purports to be to his clients, but the presentation of Greville as a somewhat clueless everyman makes him a great deal more relatable than your average spy hero; a trait which works doubly well when the screws are tightened and Wynne finds himself in some unfortunate and alarming predicaments. This is where Cumberbatch really shines, as we see Greville’s persona gradually shift as he begins to accept his situation and the graveness of his involvement, with equal parts resilience and desperation shining through in Cumberbatch’s beaten and bruised facial expressions.

If Cumberbatch’s character brings something new to the table in his ordinary citizen spy then Merab Ninidze’s Oleg Penkovsky is the familiar experienced agent of espionage, carefully and methodically planning his path to defection to ensure that his family will be safe and free from Russian retribution. Despite not benefitting from having his familial connections as fleshed out as Cumberbatch, Ninidze is no less convincing in his exploration of the weight of his actions. There is always a sense that each secret photo taken or coded message delivered could be the one to doom the entire operation and Ninidze clearly grapples with these decisions and the effects it could have on his young daughter and wife, ultimately choosing to endanger himself to provide for them. It is a commonality which the two men bond over and makes for some insightful and emotional conversations between the pair, never feeling expository but rather earnest in their desire to succeed but never by placing their families in harm’s way. When difficult choices are made to ultimately remove Oleg from Russia, the weight of the choices made by Greville feel almost insurmountable and the consequences fatal. For Greville in particular, that fear is compounded by Jessie Buckley’s characterisation of his wife; a strong, proud woman who suspects her husband of having an affair. Even if they succeed in their mission, that fear of losing his family remains for Wynne; unable to explain the situation to Sheila due to the classified nature of the operation.

It all makes for an utterly enthralling and emotional espionage film, with real stakes and weight conveyed through its characters and their actions rather than huge expository dumps about the state of things that often run rampant in the genre. The story itself may not be not be overly original but its historical importance cannot be overstated and the performances are top notch, investing an audience who is never sure whether the next trip will be Greville’s last or if his wife’s facade of strength will finally crack, throwing his life into unrecoverable turmoil either way. Come for the Britishness of it all, stay for the surprisingly emotional and tense spy thriller.

The Courier stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Merab Ninidze, Jessie Buckley, Angus Wright, Keir Hills, Kirill Pirogov & Rachel Brosnahan – In cinemas now.

Tags Benedict Cumberbatch, Dominic Cooke, Merab Ninidze, Rachel Brosnahan, The Courier