Doctor Strange Review

There were only a few mentions to the wider MCU that I caught. The most obvious were Wong mentioning the Avengers and that guy on the phone asking if Stephen wanted to operate on Colonel Rhodes. They also showed Avengers Tower in an aerial shot early in the film. I specifically looked for it in some of the skyline shots on the Netflix shows and didn't see it. Then there was the Eye of Agamotto turning out to be the time gem, as some have suspected. I thought Kevin Feige said infinity stones weren't in the film, but it turns out I misinterpreted what he said. The fact that it is an infinity stone is only just barely mentioned.

Did anyone else notice the bit at the end of the credits where Marvel warned people not to drive while distracted? It feels like a good thing to put in a movie whose entire plot is caused by a motor vehicle accident.

The mid-credits scene definitely confirms those rumors that Stephen is in Thor: Ragnarok. I didn't believe them until last night because they were based on some very grainy images of something Chris Hemsworth was holding in his hand. I think it was a business card that was too pixelated for me to read.

Mordo's looking likely as the villain for any potential sequel. He's a villain in the comics, so a lot of fans were surprised that he was a good guy in this movie. However, it turns out this movie is just his villain origin and he's going to take a dark turn.

On a somewhat further afield note, I think Jemma Simmons (from Agents of SHIELD if you don't watch that) has been taken to one of the sanctums following the battles that took place there. However, I'm not completely sold on the idea, since the producers of SHIELD said the crossover would mostly just be at a conceptual level (i.e. them both dealing with magic) rather than as explicit as the previous ones have been.

How long was Stephen training at the temple? I was under the impression it was maybe a month. However, that seems awfully fast to learn advanced sorcery like that. Mordo or Wong did comment that he was a fast learner, but a fast learner would be closer to a year.

I assume there's more to the magic than fancy hand motions. Usually in wizard lore, there's some sort of verbal incantation, but this movie seems to have none of that. The portals did use a piece of hardware (the sling ring), but everything else just seemed to be arm-waving. I know there's some kind of method to it, since Marvel hired someone to choreograph those movements, but then why don't random people conjure magic?