In early May 2022, I went to the cinema with a friend to watch Dr. Strange 2. I was hyped beyond belief for it due to the director being Sam Raimi and the main character being Steven Strange, the only superhero who had to develop his powers.
What I got was a decent movie that turned sublime in the last half hour. I was expecting an Evil Dead homage and got it by the truckload.
The storyline revolves around Steven Strange dealing with a new threat arising from 100s of hours of middling shows and movies between Avengers: Endgame (2019) and this movie. Characters felt as exposition machines; they didn't have any real dialog that wasn't name-dropping.
The main gimmick of the movie is the Multiverse, a set of parallel universes that are slightly off from one another. Each universe has its own version of the same character and the same event, so in one Dr. Strange has died, and in another, he has turned insane.
I found the Multiverse a small step up from the time travel gimmick from Avengers: Endgame (2019), meaning it turns the plot into a slightly less confusing mess that is just about watchable and parsable. I don't like the implication that it could be used to bring back dead characters either.
The CGI is a real eye candy, in particular when used to build the world, creating a vivid kaleidoscope of colors and shapes. However, when used to depict characters throwing Hadoukens at each other, it fails miserably and made me go numb.
Way too often, the characters don't have any strategy except taking up a "wizard casting spell" pose and motioning with their arms. It's pathetic and reveals a lack of imagination. However, deaths are imaginative and creative when they happen, though bloodless.
There is one side character that has untold power but gets held as a hostage for almost the entire movie. It was quite pathetic. Another side character is a pudgy Chinese guy who barely slurs through his lines.
Dr. Strange 2 (2022) is a movie that is likely a high point of the Marvel universe. I expect the Multiverse idea to get overused in tugging at our heartstrings.