HYPEKeep those apples away, Marvel fans, as HYPE takes a closer look at the new Marvel comic-turned-movie, Doctor Strange.
By Rachel Chan
Prepare for a new addition to the legion of superhero movies invading cinemas in recent years as Marvel Studios unveils yet another installment in the third phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – Doctor Strange.
The movie follows Doctor Stephen Vincent Strange, the world’s best neurosurgeon whose career was cut short after a car accident. However, surviving the tragedy gave him access to alternate realms and magical abilities.
A Celtic mystic based in Tibet, called the Ancient One, played by Tilda Swinton, then recruits him as a disciple, training him to become the next Sorcerer Supreme.
Best known for playing Sherlock Holmes in BBC’s television series Sherlock, Emmy Award-winning actor Benedict Cumberbatch is the leading character.
The star-studded cast also includes Swinton as the protagonist’s mentor, the Ancient One, Chiwetel Ejiofor as the antagonist Karl Mordo, and Rachel McAdams as Strange’s surgeon colleague.
Dubbed by CinemaBlend as “2016’s biggest superhero movie hit” and “1 of the most visually exciting movies” produced by Marvel, Doctor Strange is directed by Scott Derrickson.
“We felt free to go as far as we could imagine, so we’re doing a lot of things that I think have not been done before,” said Derrickson in an interview with Empire magazine earlier this year. “Once we’d crossed a certain line, we just kept going.”
Marvel released the first official trailer for Doctor Strange on April 13 on YouTube. With its jaw-dropping special effects accompanied by the movie’s chilling music score, the trailer appeared promising despite having gone through countless scriptwriters since 1986.
Ameer Ibrahim, 19, a fan of Marvel comics, said: “From the trailers alone, I can tell the CGI is going to be pretty darn awesome. The mood and ambience of the movie is also something different from other superhero movies and draws a lot of parallels to abstract works like Inception by Christopher Nolan.”
Although there was an overall positive response, the trailer received much flak over the ‘whitewashing’ of certain characters, such as the Ancient One, who was originally an Asian male in the comics.
Gan Zhen Yin, 19, another fan of Doctor Strange, said that the issue of “whitewashing”, especially in Hollywood, is very worrying as other ethnicities are not getting enough recognition for characters that are originally depicted as people of colour.
According to collider.com, Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios, said that they decided to swap the roles as “an effort to avoid the racist caricature of the comics” and that the swap was “exciting” as it “opened up many possibilities” into the comic’s cliché plot-line.
Nonetheless, fans will still be anticipating the newest superhero/sorcerer make his appearance on the big screen.
Doctor Strange opens in cinemas November 3, 2016.