This mystical realm is so crowded with plot and characters and magical doodads that there’s no room for the characters<\/b>
\nOne of the planes of existence in \u201cDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness\u201d features a swirling vortex that has a definite resemblance to the Everything Bagel in \u201cEverything Everywhere All at Once,\u201d and it\u2019s an unfortunate coincidence, as the Daniels\u2019 boldly inventive indie movie explodes with wit and nerve and character \u2013 most of which are prominently missing from this latest MCU adventure. The follow-up to 2016\u2019s \u201cDoctor Strange\u201d hits the ooh-and-aah marks we expect from a well-crafted Marvel adventure, but even with Sam Raimi at the helm, this entry goes heavy on the spectacle but light on the humanity. Raimi\u2019s success with the original \u201cSpider-Man\u201d trilogy laid the groundwork \u2014 for better or worse \u2014 for the contemporary wave of superhero sagas, and while his brand of visual flair and scary-funny jolts serve the material well, the screenplay by \u201cLoki\u201d creator Michael Waldron piles on so many alternative universes, new characters, and books of spells (both good and evil) that there\u2019s no breathing room left. (In the first movie, Dr. Stephen Strange goes on a hero\u2019s journey; this time, he basically learns what not to do from the mistakes of his interdimensional doppelg\u00e4ngers.) \u201cMultiverse of Madness\u201d is a sequel to \u201cDoctor Strange,\u201d with the ex-Sorcerer Supreme (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) taking on a new threat to reality itself, but viewers should probably also be up on the Disney+ series \u201cWandaVision,\u201d in which Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) used her own magic powers to create an artificial reality in which her husband Vision had not died and the two of them had a pair of adorable sons in a sitcom-perfect suburb. Strange\u2019s hubris opened up a part of the multiverse in \u201cSpider-Man: No Way Home,\u201d and now that multiverse lands on his doorstep in the form of America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez, Netflix\u2019s \u201cThe Baby-Sitters Club\u201d). This teenager first appears in Strange\u2019s dreams \u2014 where he fails to save her, or himself \u2014 and then in the middle of Manhattan, where she is being pursued by giant tentacled eyeball, a very Sam Raimi kind of kaiju. (Imagine a Madball designed by H.P. Lovecraft.) America, it turns out, is the only being who can hop from universe to universe, only she has no idea how to control it. (It kicks in only when she\u2019s afraid for her life.) Naturally, it\u2019s the kind of power that should never fall into the wrong hands, so of course the wrong hands are doing everything possible to take it for themselves, leading America and Dr. Strange to universe-hop until they can figure out how to protect the girl and her abilities. (If this sounds vague, it\u2019s because this review is intended to be as spoiler-free as possible.) The powers of Doctor Strange (as manifested in his first film and subsequent appearances in other Marvel projects) allow filmmakers to create M.C. Escher\u2013esque kaleidoscopes of collapsing reality, and Raimi absolutely takes advantage of the opportunities to send everyone and everything on screen helter-skelter. There\u2019s a memorably trippy montage of Dr. Strange and America falling through universe after universe, with different styles of architecture, cinematography (by John Mathieson, \u201cDetective Pikachu\u201d), and even the physical makeup of the characters themselves. \u201cMultiverse of Madness\u201d is at its best in those all-too-rare moments when that madness comes through, with Danny Elfman\u2019s spot-on score offering just the right support to both the heroics and the trippiness. \u201cDoctor Strange\u201d introduced us to a character who is brilliant and arrogant, a man who loses everything he has but reinvents himself, transforming from a legendary surgeon to a master of the mystic arts. The good doctor doesn\u2019t get nearly as much to play this time around, apart from some mooning over his failed relationship with Christine (a returning Rachel McAdams), and while America seems like a potentially interesting addition to the MCU, she spends so much of this movie either in active distress or delivering exposition that we don\u2019t get much of a sense of who she is at all. (Most of the other cast spends their time yelling out plot points \u2014 with the notable exception of the reliably droll Benedict Wong \u2014 which leaves time to notice the series of terrible wigs Cumberbatch is forced to wear as various iterations of Stephen Strange.) Raimi die-hards will enjoy his puckish sense of amusement at the liberties he\u2019s allowed to take with ground rules and with gravity (not to mention his fleeting shout-outs to classic films like \u201cSpellbound\u201d and \u201cThe Defiant Ones\u201d), and Marvel fans will come away thrilled with hints as to where this mega-franchise might go next (and who it might include as it does so). But there\u2019s a level of human drama missing from \u201cDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness\u201d; the surface of this Everything Bagel is loaded with ingredients, but it lacks a certain flavor. \u201cDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness\u201d opens in US theaters May 6.<\/p>\n