Don't get me wrong, the film has some stunning visual effects. It's a beautifully made film. However, underneath all of those flashy visuals is a half-baked story and almost no character development. The story is very formulaic. They basically took the basic formula of your typical superhero origin film and did nothing to make it stand out story-wise. That's not to say that the film doesn't stand out. The fact that the film is about a group called the Masters of the Mystic Arts ensures that this film will be at least a little unique from other superhero origin films. But I'm not talking about those kinds of differences. I'm talking about the storyline itself. The storyline is quite simple: arrogant jerk has something bad happen to him, he seeks to repair the damage, and then he becomes a superhero. If that sounds vaguely familiar, that's because it's also the storyline of such superhero origin films as Iron Man, Batman Begins, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The problem is that unlike these three films, Doctor Strange has just the basic plot elements of a superhero origin. The film is like a chicken dish without any sauce or seasoning.
The character development is also atrocious. We don't get to know any of the characters very well, except for Doctor Strange himself and (to a lesser extent) his friend Mordo. But even the way Doctor Strange is set up as a character is pretty shallow. They pretty much just showed him being arrogant and expected us to fill in the blanks by inserting character points from Tony Stark and Sherlock Holmes (the version from the BBC's Sherlock series). Though, to be fair, they did a pretty good job of showing is journey from being a Stark/Sherlock mashup to being a hero who is willing to put his life on the line for the people of earth. And Benedict Cumberbatch was (as always) a pleasure to watch as Doctor Strange. Mordo, on the other hand, has an interesting development as a character throughout the film. Unfortunately, we feel nothing either good or bad for where he ends up in the film because we hardly know what he was like before the journey began.
As for all of the other characters, they are sorely underdeveloped. Tilda Swinton's Ancient One is just a boring mentor stereotype with no real development. Her character is an example of how NOT to write a character who is supposed to be mysterious. Swinton's talents were definitely wasted in this movie. Mads Mikkelsen's villainous Kaecilius has literally no character development whatsoever - which is really disappointing because the prelude comics for Doctor Strange set him up as a pretty sympathetic character, and then the movie totally ignored all of that development and did nothing with the character. It was almost like they were expecting you to read the comics in order to understand the character's motives. I shouldn't have to do homework before I go watch a movie. If I do, that's lazy storytelling.
I've been really harsh with this movie thus far. However, unlike what you probably think, I didn't hate it. I thought it was an entertaining movie. It was a lot of fun to watch. But the characters and the story weren't developed well enough, which means that the emotional moments just don't work. There was scene in particular that I mentioned to my friends that I saw the film with. I won't explain it here because it's a major plot point, but this scene was supposed to be really emotional. However, I literally felt nothing when it happened because I didn't care about the characters involved. The film was so focused on looking cool, that it forgot to tell a good story. It's like a painting that is beautiful to look at but does not stay in your memory because it doesn't convey anything.
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