Doctor Strange: Benedict Cumberbatch stars in this rollicking, surreal adventure—what may be one of the strangest and most spiritual entries in Marvel’s cinematic canon. It’s piled high with arcane symbols and Eastern mystic trappings. But the heart of this story beats with a certain Christian ethos, giving us a hero who must learn to die to himself to save the universe. As the Ancient One tells him at one juncture, “It’s not about you.” Director Scott Derrickson layers this tale with surprising complexity and even ambiguity, pitting Strange’s flexibility (and some would say relativism) against the dogmatic absolutism of Strange’s cohort Mordo. It’s a visual treat that has some sneaky heft to it—the sort of movie you can spend a lot of time talking about (as me and my pal Jake Roberson did).
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