Dr. Strange v Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

All of my readers know that I’m a huge Marvel fan. And I have been for a large part of the previous ten years. What Marvel has been able to accomplish, is nothing short of incredible.

Meanwhile, DC, largely headed by WB has been struggling to string filmmakers together, much less create entire movies, and even lesser, create a cinematic universe.

But that conversation is for another day. For now, I’m concentrating on just two movies. Both of whom not only competed with each other at the box office, but were also based around a world of fantasy and supernatural.

I must preface by saying that since Batman v Superman, I have had a massive bias against WB. I wish to see the DCEU flourish, but I can’t help oggling a train crash when I drive past it. After what BvS did to me, and following that monstrosity up with Suicide Squad… Suicide Squad made BvS seem like The Godfather.

I’m glad I didn’t watch Fantastic Beasts in the cinema when it first came out. Still reeling from the gut-wrenching horror of Suicide Squad, I would have been unable to relive the world of J.K. Rowling. The movies introduced me to the books, and immediately made me critical of them. I must commend WB for the movies which although never being as good as the books, were still masterfully crafted, and appealed to everyone.

Meanwhile, the rumblings of a beast spread across yonder lands. It hath awaken, from the fury of a thousand suns, and tamed only by the most unrelenting force this planet hath ever known- DISNEY!… Marvel, boosted by Disney, started something that has never been accomplished in the 100+ year history of cinema. The MCU has gone from strength to strength, making box-office numbers seem like child’s play… It did what every studio executive dreamed of – It cracked the code. It cracked the code to making moneys. So much moneys that it took Marvel only 14 movies, and 6 years to cross the $10 billion mark. That is 1 followed by 10 zeroes, in 6 years, and close to $720 million a movie.

So, it may come as a surprise to all my readers when I say that Fantastic Beasts is by a huge mile, BETTER than Dr. Strange.

Now, there are several factors to it. Let’s break all of them down.

The first thing that every movie should get right, is The Characters.

It is no secret that the protagonist of Fantastic Beasts is Newt Scamander, the famed writer of namesake book. I do have a problem with the title of the movie. Had you just told me the name of the movie, without showing me any trailers, I would say it is a mockumentary style movie that parodied Planet Earth. I must say, I am disappointed with what the movie actually turned out to be, but it is one hell of a movie for what it is. Newt is as good as any Marvel hero to me. What catches my attention is how much I like the character, despite him being shy, soft-spoken, and introverted.

The “Marvel Effect” as I shall call it has made it almost a compulsion for every protagonist to be quippy. There have been so many of them over the past 3 years or so… and so many of them are from Marvel itself. Scott Lang, Peter Parker, Peter Quill, whatshisface from Jurassic World, all characters played by Dwayne Johnson, two of the main guys in the new Star Wars (Finn and Poh)… all of them headlined films with massive budgets. Of course, in pure numbers there are only a few movies, but most of them are front and centre of big-budgeted titles, that everyone goes to see. So we come across them more than the others in a theatrical setting.

Newt in contrast, is shy and introverted. He is instantly like-able, even before he says a word. The first thing you see is his feet and his gait while he steps out of a ship. And you can tell that he is going to be a great character. Eddie Redmayne’s portrayal of Newt, is incredible and layered. The best part is that the layers don’t go as deep, they are there for us to see. He makes the CG beasts come to life through his performance. You can sense that Newt has been around these animals for all his life, but is still awestruck when he sees them.

Let’s move now, to Dr. Strange.

I’ll be straight up, and say the portrayal is fine. But that’s the problem, you see? It is fine. It serves its purpose. Benedict Cumberbatch does an amazing job, but the role overall is there to serve a purpose. It has to carry us through three Dr. Strange movies, and three or more Avengers movies. There are no layers. You cannot peel anything. You cannot relate to the character. He is just Dr. Tony Stark. He goes through a journey of self-discovery, and… becomes a sorcerer. At heart, he remains the same person, but realizes that Rachel McAdams cares for him. That’s it. How does a person relate to being a sorcerer? How does becoming a sorcerer affect him on a personal and emotional level? The movie lists down his characteristics on a list in the first five minutes and hands them over to you. “Here, this is Strange. Enjoy.” And I kept hoping… maybe NOW he might do something that tells me more about him… but no. That’s it. He is a list.

Newt doesn’t change, but he is not supposed to change. He is supposed to help the beasts, not go through a journey to find himself. Moreover, Redmayne still manages to bring a third-dimension by adding depth to the character. You HAVE to see it to believe it. Every time he interacts with or about a beast,his eyes light up. His mannerisms showcase that he got into trouble because of his fondness for animals on many occasions. Moreover, towards the end, when he tries to defend the beasts against Graves, I felt worried for Newt. At no point in Dr. Strange, even when he dies repeatedly during the climax did I feel anything for him.

Let’s now talk about the supporting characters.

For Beasts, the side characters are again, portrayed beautifully, by very talented actors. Colin Farrell is the best of them. He is commanding, fierce and stern. He captures your attention every second he is on the screen. I have missed characters like him. I can’t remember the last one I saw. Graves brings a focus to this movie. His plot merges excellently with the main plot.

Katherine Waterson’s “Ms. Goldstein” is perhaps the least attention-grabbing. She has perhaps, the weakest of the roles, but during the climax, she talks to Ezra Miller’s character about the problem he has been facing,and that she is there to protect and help him. The ending changed my view on her. She became more and more like-able as the movie progressed.

Queenie, played by… ahem… Fine Frenzy… pretty cool name… was someone whom I didn’t think would have much of a role, and the small amount I assumed she’d have, would bring all the feminists to the yard. I honestly thought, she’d be a love interest for Dan Fogler. But she turns out to have a major role in saving the three – Redmayne, Waterson and Fogler – from Graves, and helping them escape the MACUSA.

Dan Fogler’s Jacob Kowalski… He is the best character in the movie for me. He is a muggle, or a “No-Mag”, that is thrusted into the world of wizards. The character is so well written. In any similar situation, especially after five years of absence, it is expected that we would re-familiarized to the world of wizards through the incessant questioning of Jacob Kowalski. But not here. Kowalski is just happy to be there. Moreover, he is the character who has to express surprise and delight at magic. This delight is the correct way to reintroduce the world to us, and not through incomprehensible lines upon lines of rules and exposition. Kowalski knows he is in safe hands, and through him, do we.

Lastly, Ezra Miller, is… different, shall we say. His role is straight out of Addam’s Family type stuff. But even he displays a humanity that counterbalances his role to an acceptable standard. The character adds a dynamic that I was confounded by at first, but it grew on me as the movie went on. It does deviate from the main plot initially, but merges well towards the end.

Dr. Strange now… let’s get Rachel McAdams out of the way. She is a copy and paste character from thousands of other movies, not just superhero movies. It is not a damsel-in-distress role, but I am getting tired of the sick excuse they have for female characters by giving them one thing to do. Oh, she defibrillates Strange during an action scene. So she is a strong female character. She had something to do, that wasn’t discussing Strange with another female character. BECHDEL TEST HAS BEEN PASSED!! REJOICE! Bottom line is that she is redundant in this movie. Any motivation she gives to Dr. Strange could be easily replaced with motivation to…umm, I don’t know…SAVE THE PLANET?

Benedict Wong’s character was pointless as well. His entire character is in the movie for ONE joke at the end. ONE JOKE!

Look, I enjoyed the movie. Just be patient. I promise I’ll be less critical of Dr. Strange when we discuss World Building.

Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Baron Mordo is intriguing to me. But unfortunately, it wasn’t executed well. It needed more time to develop how much he admired The Ancient One,so that him turning evil at the end has an impact. By the time the turn came about, all I thought was “Really?”

Tilda Swinton’s Ancient One was…interesting… It was the most developed and deep character in the movie. There were things that remained unanswered, things whose answers you weren’t sure of, and things that weren’t even questioned with her. It seems that just about everything was laid out, but not all of it was shown. I hope it gets addressed in the sequels (of which there will be plenty).

Mads Mikkelsen’s villain was serviceable. I liked him more than the other Marvel villains, but that’s down only to the humor. And this is one of the points I want to address.

Marvel seems to have only one answer to everything – Add Humor. It makes me seem like a sadist, but honestly, I am done with the humor in Marvel movies. They actually brought in Dan Harmon, one of the great comedic writers of our time,to add jokes in the movie. When will we get something different? It is so desperate, clutching at Winter Soldier and Captain America for any grounded emotion in the MCU. It started out brilliantly, but now everything is melding into a sludge of humor and action. Guardians of the Galaxy is one of my favorite movies of all time, but humor like that should be a one-off rather than the norm, else it becomes repetitive and stale.

There HAS to be an “awkward” joke. There HAS to be a mention of another Marvel character. There HAS to be a “Couldn’t you do it earlier?” joke. The villain MUST be defeated using a small overlooked thing we came across during the training montage. Also, there HAS to be a Training Montage.

This formula can only take Marvel SO FAR. Sooner or later, people will wise up to it. I am holding out hope because Black Panther, looks interesting, and has amazing talent behind it. Meanwhile, I am positive that Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Thor 3, and Spiderman Homecoming (A more stupid name there has been not)  will all follow the formula.

Let’s talk about World-Building now…

This is quite a convoluted topic. There is no denying that both the MCU and the HPU are very well established, and deep-seeded in popular culture. Here both movies had the task to open up new branches in the established world.

I’ll start with Dr. Strange. This movie had to introduce us to the branch of Magic in MCU. Apparently Scarlet Witch uses some sort of Telekinesis, and Thor was Mythology. I say that, but I can actually define differences between all three.

Thor lives in Asgard, which is one of the Nine Realms in the MCU. The Realms can be thought of as being laid out vertically. The magic in Thor is just “advanced science”. Mjolnir is actually just a hyper-intelligent construction device that uses a sensitive microphone to distinguish the voice of someone worthy of the might of Thor and the hyper intelligent adhesive on its surface corresponds to that. At the same time it also has a propulsion mechanism inside it that can carry it across Realms. That is what being forged in the Heart of a Dying Star attributes you with.

Scarlet Witch has Telekinetic and Telepathic powers able to induce hallucinations and able to move matter including air itself, which were imbibed into her using the Soul Gem in Loki’s Scepter.

It is mind-blowing what the MCU has been able to construct. Similar things have clear, well-defined differences.

Dr. Strange introduces us to new Dimensions, which are different from Realms. They can be thought of as being laid out horizontally. Each Realm has infinite dimensions, and Dr. Strange can travel through any of them. Also, each dimension can either be accessed through, or grant us access to special abilities. I have no qualms about Dr. Strange’s world building, except that it could have been done slightly better.

For example : When Strange and Mordo go into the Mirror Dimension to escape from Kaecilius, Mordo tells strange that servants of the Dark Dimension are more powerful in the Mirror Dimension. Well, how was Strange supposed to know that? More importantly, How were WE supposed to know that? It is suddenly extremely convenient for the filmmakers to create this giant action set-piece where Strange and Mordo are out-classed. That one line uttered by Mordo (and I’m pretty sure it was re-shot) is the only explanation we have for Strange and Mordo being overwhelmed.

Then there is Time Travel as well in Dr. Strange, which surprisingly enough, hadn’t happened yet in the MCU. It took DCEU one and a half movies to use that loop hole and solve everything. I like what they did with Time Travel. It can affect only one object, or an entire dimension. But I have qualms again, with how they explained it. It is indeed, a lot to ask for, I understand. But it is not entirely out of reach. There were a few holes. Just a few…

Fantastic beasts, though… is Flawless. I cannot praise the World Building in the movie enough. It takes us back to the world we remember. Not only that, it introduces us to the MACUSA and American way of magic. It is fascinating to watch. The American way is interspersed throughout the movie. One line here, another there. And it is not simply an attempt to make the world more elaborate… all the things that are different in the US have consequences.

Another example : Mags and No-Mags aren’t allowed to marry or have offsprings with one another in US. That has consequences for Queenie and Kowalski at the end of the movie. The best part is that the rule isn’t even mentioned again, and the first time it was, was just in passing. The entire complexity of the social structure contradicting with human behavior can only be seen for less than five seconds in Queenie’s eyes when she sees Kowalski at the end.

The universe is so flawlessly written, that it numbs my stomach just thinking about what I can write and appreciate.

It shows just how well J.K.Rowling knows her own world. The movie never treats us like children who have to be explained everything through exposition and poor dialogue. Everything made sense the first time itself, without needing any explanation. The ease with which Rowling crossed the Atlantic and opened up a whole new branch of the world is worthy of applause in itself.

So, what do these movies Mean for their respective franchises?

For Beasts, it is a New World. There are no books to stick to. Rowling has signed up to write five more movies in the franchise, and I hope it goes places. Perhaps, each story should take place in different regions, connected by one thread. It has been eluded to already by David Yates. I cannot wait to see what this team comes up with. There were unresolved issues with some No-Mags towards the end which they will address in the next movies, but I hope with all my heart that the concerns are discarded and we move to Australia, Germany, Africa, or other places and see how they live their lives.

For Marvel, on the other hand, I am very concerned. The same repetitive formula is starting to take its toll. It has become very noticeable. The “Coming-of-Age” story for Spiderman, the “Heist” movie for Ant-Man is just a facade. Underneath the skin, Marvel movies are starting to appear, more or less, the same. It is certainly within their grasp to sort it out, but Dr. Strange was a huge disappointment for me.

Weirdly, it was a disappointment because it wasn’t a disappointment. It didn’t take risks with its storytelling. Yes, it had an entire world of Magic to open up, and yes, visually, it is breathtaking, but that’s like saying that we should eat a poisonous mushroom because it looks delicious.  I’d rather be disappointed in something New, than be “meh” in the Same Old, because when the “same-old” becomes acceptable, which it quite easy, things begin to falter.