I do not know if I can talk about how much I enjoyed this movie without there being spoilers. Soooo, proceed with caution. There will be spoilers.
I went to see the movie on Monday night because it was becoming difficult to avoid spoilers. The funny thing is that some of the stuff I heard was actually not true (like Bruce Campbell being a Dr.Strange variant). Also, the number of rumors out there was insane and it seemed like Disney was just stoking the fires by never denying and at times it felt like they were adding fuel. For example, there was the scene from the trailer where we see a glowing individual, which many folks thought it was Tom Cruise as Iron Man. Also, there was the villain. The Lego set featured Gargantos, which everyone assumed was the main villain. Haha, little did people know!
I loved the villain choice. Seriously, this is a major spoiler alert, so if you have not seen the movie, I think you should stop reading.
What I loved the most was that it was not this huge reveal halfway through the movie or at the end. It came at the beginning (and it made sense since we saw that post-credit scene in WandaVision). Wanda being corrupted by the Darkhold and sending demons after America Chavez. And the beauty of her turning bad is that you feel sad for her. She wants her children back, even if it means destroying her other self and taking those kids. I liked how America turned that against her.
The Illuminati was everything I hoped and it was especially cool seeing Black Bolt and Mr. Fantastic (how did they manage to keep that secret…John Krasinski & Anson Mount?). Also, we knew it was Professor X, but how awesome was the wheelchair AND the cartoon music? I loved that part. But the best part? The battle. Wanda went through them like they were nothing. I was shocked when Captain Carter was killed by her shield. Definitely could tell this was a Sam Raimi film.
Another thing I enjoyed was the beginning with the wedding. The Phase 4 shows and movies have done a great job of really giving us an idea of how different the world is post-snap. People having different takes on what Dr.Strange did (giving Thanos the Time Stone…was it the right move?–if you were dusted and gone for five years, it might be hard to swallow that decision, especially if you lost people).
So where do things go from here for Dr.Strange? As we saw at the end, Strange has the third eye from the influence of the Darkhold, has he been totally corrupted? Will going to the Dark Dimension with Clea be his undoing? Will the MCU be able to handle a villainous Strange? Also, will the MCU just focus on individual stories for a bit instead of having a giant villain tying everything together? Or is the multiverse itself the villain? Yeah, I know Kang is coming, but will he just be an Ant-Man villain and then that will be it? I do not know, but I am excited to see where things go from here!
