Critic Reviews Roll In For Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness Following World Premiere

John F. Trent |

May 3, 2022

Source: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Critics have seen Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and are sharing their reviews following the film’s world premiere.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange, Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, and Rachel McAdams as Dr. Christine Palmer in Marvel Studios’ DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.

Rotten Tomatoes

On Rotten Tomatoes, the Tomatometer critic score currently sits at 80% from 131 reviews. Despite an 80% Tomatometer rating the film has an average rating of 6.7 out of 10. There are 105 fresh reviews and 26 rotten reviews.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Looking at the Top Critics score, it sits at 72% from 36 reviewers with an average rating of 6.4 out of 10. There are 26 fresh reviews and 10 rotten reviews.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Here’s what some of the critics are saying:

Kirsten Acuna at Insider gives the film a C+. She writes, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” is filled with mind-bending visuals and huge action sequences, but it’s also destined to be Marvel’s most divisive film in years.”

Julian Roman at MovieWeb gives the movie a 3 out of 5. He writes, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a creature feature loaded with surprises. The uneven visual effects fuels nearly non-stop action in a brisk runtime. Tremendous lead performances aid a script with gaping plot holes.”

Emma Stefansky at Thrillist gives the film a fresh rating. She writes, “Everyone’s excitement welcoming Raimi back to the superhero fold was well worth it… Marvel’s latest entry is worth seeing just to watch an adept at his craft cast his signature dark magic.”

(L-R): Michael Stuhlbarg as Nic West and Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Stephen Strange in Marvel Studios’ DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. Photo by Jay Maidment. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.

Robert Kojder at Flickering Myth gives the film a 2.5 out of 5. He writes, “Madness is one of the last adjectives that come to mind when describing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”

Katie Walsh at Tribune News Service gives the film a 2.5 out of 4. She writes, “This isn’t a multiverse of madness, but of mundanity.”

Jeffrey Lyles at Lyles’ Movie Files gives the film a 9 out of 10. He writes, “Another stellar example of Marvel Studios fan service, unexpected thrills and a mini epic contained in a just over two-hour film. There’s a reason why Marvel dominates the box office — the filmmakers deliver above and beyond what fans want to see.”

Christian Toto at HollywoodInToto gives the film a 2.5 out of 4. He writes, “Multiverse of Madness’ doubles down on Spidey’s intergalactic exploits to exhausting effect.”

Laura Clifford at Reeling Reviews gives the movie a B. She writes, “This is an odd entry in the MCU – a sequel which could almost be a standalone, a welcome bit of director Sam Raimi’s patented comic grand Guignol and a movie that leans a bit too heavily on a Disney+ television series (‘Wandavision’).”

Charles Koplinski at Reel Talk with Chuck and Pam gives the film a 2.5 out of 4. He writes, “Unfortunately, the magic – excuse the pun – is missing, as Sam Raimi’s curious misstep never has a feeling of urgency, a film that spins its wheels…leaning on prolonged, needless action sequences meant to distract us from its flimsy narrative.”

Mick LaSalle at San Francisco Chronicle gives the film a 3 out of 4. He writes, “Clearly, these superheroes are never going away… However, if all Marvel movies are as smart as ‘Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness,’ it won’t matter.”

Dominic Griffin at The Armchair Auteur gives the film a 4 out of 10. He writes, “The blockbuster movie equivalent to reading a trade paperback collection of single issue comics where a beloved superstar artist is repeatedly replaced by a lackluster fill-in dragging the rest of the work down. Frustratingly inconsistent.”

Stephen Silver at Tilt Magazine gives the film a 2 out of 5. He writes, “The story is confusing and filled with endless MacGuffins and mumbo jumbo while confining most of its best ideas to throwaway moments. The dialogue is full of endless exposition, but more often than not it makes things less clear.”

Carla Hay at Culture Mix gives the film a fresh score. She writes, “It’s a convoluted but entertaining experience that should not be a viewer’s first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. It’s a movie that can be considered the tipping point where at least one Marvel show on Disney+ is essential viewing to understand the film.”

Scott Mendelson at Forbes gives the movie a 6 out of 10. He writes, “Sam Raimi’s ‘Doctor Strange’ sequel subversively rubs viewers’ noses in the notion of the MCU being anything more important than a well-crafted big-budget blockbuster brand.”

Alonso Duralde at TheWrap gives the film a fresh score. He writes, “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.”

Metacritic

On Metacritic, the film has a Metascore of 63 from 41 critics. There are 27 positive reviews, 12 mixed reviews, and 2 negative reviews.

Source: Metacritic

Liz Shannon Miller at Consequence gives the movie a 91. She writes, “Multiverse of Madness isn’t wildly unconventional in its story choices, but the fun it has exploring the possibilities of this narrative makes it a treat.”

Richard Trenholm at Cnet gives the film an 81. He writes, “In the hands of director Sam Raimi, Multiverse of Madness is a marvellously assured balancing act of bizarre weirdness and affecting human drama.”

Justin Change at the Los Angeles Times gives the movie an 80. He says, “Raimi’s sheer passion for his material can sometimes overwhelm the coherence of his storytelling, and his unfashionable sincerity doesn’t always mesh with the breezy quip-a-minute tone that is the Marvel enterprise’s preferred comic idiom. I mean those both as compliments.”

Richard Ropert at Chicago Sun-Times gives the movie a 75. He states, “With the deadpan-great Benedict Cumberbatch effortlessly sliding back into the role of the brilliant and immensely powerful but sometimes shortsighted and narcissistic Doctor Stephen Strange and a bizarro plot that serves up philosophical, ethical and spiritual mind games in between the sometimes repetitive but slick and exhilarating action sequences, this is one of the weirder Marvel movies yet.”

Mike Ryan at Uproxx gives the movie a 75. He says, “Honestly, it’s kind of remarkable what Marvel let Raimi get away with, but all that doesn’t really kick in until maybe an hour into the movie, and it becomes a much better movie once that happens.”

Leah Greenblatt at Entertainment Weekly gives the film a 75 too. She writes, “Give Sam Raimi a multiverse, and he will take a mile. The director’s take on Doctor Strange feels like many disparate and often deeply confusing things — comedy, camp horror, maternal drama, sustained fireball — but it is also not like any other Marvel movie that came before it. And 23 films into the franchise, that’s a wildly refreshing thing, even as the story careens off in more directions than the Kaiju-sized octo-beast who storms into an early scene, bashing its tentacles through small people and tall buildings like an envoy from some nightmare aquarium.”

Brian Truitt at USA Today gives the film a 75. He says, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness definitely makes good on the promises of an excessive title: Alternate realities are in full effect, things get progressively more bonkers, and the latest adventure for Benedict Cumberbatch’s Marvel magic man takes “the search for one’s self” conceit to a whole new level.”

Stephanie Zacharek at Time gives the film a 70. She says, “The best thing you can say about the moderately entertaining, if predictably excessive, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is that if you squint and concentrate really hard, you can tell it’s a Sam Raimi movie.”

Brian Lowry at CNN gives the movie a 70. He wrote, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” might be the most insanely Marvel movie ever, for good and ill. Unleashing the infinite possibilities of the multiverse throws open the studio’s toybox, but the anything-goes aspects of that can be alternately thrilling, disorienting and occasionally, a little silly. All told, this sequel proves highly entertaining, if not quite worthy of the pent-up demand for it.”

Michael O’Sullivan at The Washington Post gives the movie a 63. He writes, “There’s stuff to like in “Multiverse”: amazing effects, surprise cameos, even the unexpectedly moving scene in which Wanda realizes she has, at last, become a monster. But there’s also stuff that’s just, for lack of a better word, annoying.”

Roger Moore at Movie Nation gives the movie a 63 as well. He wrote, “This isn’t one of the best movies of this genre. But when at its best, it takes Marvel places it’s been entirely too timid to go before, and I’m NOT talking about this endlessly flogged ‘multiverse’ business.”

John DeFore gave the film a 60 at The Hollywood Reporter, “Though unsatisfying in some respects, the film is enough fun to make one wish for a portal to a variant universe in which Marvel movies spent more time exploiting their own strengths and less time trying to make you want more Marvel movies.”

(L-R): Rachel McAdams as Dr. Christine Palmer, Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange, and Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez in Marvel Studios’ DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.

Owen Gleiberman at Variety gives the film a 50. He wrote, “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness is a ride, a head trip, a CGI horror jam, a what-is-reality Marvel brainteaser and, at moments, a bit of an ordeal. It’s a somewhat engaging mess, but a mess all the same.”

Donald Clarke at The Irish Times gives the movie a 40. He writes, “The film is not a dead loss. The sheer chaos of the thing is welcome in an age when big-budget films travel along too-straight lines. Raimi is allowed a few moments of characteristic invention. But nothing here suggests there is much room to manoeuvre within the Marvel straitjacket. A disappointment.”

Johnny Oleksinski at the New York Post gave the film a 25. He wrote, “Many diehards, in their slavish, zombie-like subservience to the MCU gods, will tell you that Sam Raimi (brilliant on the 2002 “Spider-Man”) has directed a horror movie. Lies! It’s as scary and visually arresting as ‘Van Helsing,’ ‘Underworld’ and ‘Hellboy 2.'”

Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange and Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez in Marvel Studios’ DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. Photo by Jay Maidment. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.

What do you make of these reviews? Are you planning on seeing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness?

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