FINALLY I CAN CHECK TWITTER AGAIN.
I have thoughts. They are to follow.
I had actually forgotten that it was Sam Raimi directing until like 10 minutes into the movie when Strange stabbed a giant eyeball tentacle monster right in the eyeball and pulled it out and then I was reminded of who was behind the camera. That and the Bruce Campbell cameo, which was awesome.
SO MUCH STUFF HAPPENED. This was like the perfect antithesis of the Eternals, where nothing happened for like 2.5 hours. God, I was almost disappointed that they didn’t hop through more crazy universes instead of just concentrating most of the action in 838.
Granted I can see how this might have veered too far into Raimi’s wacky horror tendencies for some (I mean, the movie is about someone getting corrupted by an evil book, who else would be behind it?) but I love me some body horror and jump scares here and there and this had just enough of them.
Can we talk about poor Professor X, who has now been killed off in multiple appearances since the original X-Men trilogy? Also BLACK BOLT, who I’m assuming was not Anson Mount because he’s too busy being awesome as Christopher Pike at the moment. Also John Krasinski as Mr. Fantastic was genius casting, and hopefully they’re find another version of him that didn’t get cut to ribbons like Play-Doh going through a pasta maker set.
Oddly they didn’t make any effort to tie this into the LAST multiversal romp featuring Doctor Strange that just came out and this was more of a standalone piece.
THE THIRD EYE at the end. Another total Raimi moment.
People have been bitching that you have to “do homework” to understand it, although I disagree. I thought Wanda’s storyline from WandaVision was summarized pretty well in two sentences and made sense even without the show. Just wait until Kang the Conqueror starts getting involved and they have to summarize Loki for newbies. GOOD FUCKING LUCK THERE.
Was this great? I thought so. Might have to watch it again. I’ve missed Raimi. Maybe I’ll go watch Army of Darkness, ANOTHER romp through time and space, to celebrate.
Next up: THOR.