Doctor Strange

RandomPrincess

RandomPrincess

Keep Moving Forward
Original Poster
It looks like we have an answer as to why they dropped the Tibetan character -

MINEFIELD: To avoid the wrath of the Chinese, Hollywood is changing a Tibetan man into a European woman, to be played by actress Tilda Swinton, in the film adaptation of 'Dr. Strange.'

http://wtop.com/movies/2016/04/movie-doctor-strange-turns-tibetan-man-into-european-woman/

While the Ancient One was written in the comic book as Tibetan, “if you acknowledge that Tibet is a place and that he’s Tibetan, you risk alienating 1 billion people,” screenwriter C. Robert Cargill said in a podcast interview with the Texas-based DoubleToasted.com.

There was, Cargill said, a risk of “the Chinese government going, ‘Hey, you know one of the biggest film-watching countries in the world? We’re not going to show your movie because you decided to get political.'”
 
Matt_Black

Matt_Black

Well-Known Member
RandomPrincess said:
It looks like we have an answer as to why they dropped the Tibetan character -

MINEFIELD: To avoid the wrath of the Chinese, Hollywood is changing a Tibetan man into a European woman, to be played by actress Tilda Swinton, in the film adaptation of 'Dr. Strange.'

http://wtop.com/movies/2016/04/movie-doctor-strange-turns-tibetan-man-into-european-woman/

While the Ancient One was written in the comic book as Tibetan, “if you acknowledge that Tibet is a place and that he’s Tibetan, you risk alienating 1 billion people,” screenwriter C. Robert Cargill said in a podcast interview with the Texas-based DoubleToasted.com.

There was, Cargill said, a risk of “the Chinese government going, ‘Hey, you know one of the biggest film-watching countries in the world? We’re not going to show your movie because you decided to get political.'”
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Ah, well that makes sense. No doubt similar rationale was used during the production of Big Hero 6, where the Japanese heroes who live in Japan are instead an ethnically diverse group living in a (heavily modified) U.S. city, with the only characters of Japanese ancestry are implied to be part Anglo. China and Japan don't get along all that well.
 
Animaniac93-98

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
doctornick said:
Dr. Strange continues the MCU trend with positive reviews: Currently at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes with 20 reviews.
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Now at 97% with 36 reviews.

A common criticism seems to be the formulaic plot. Given the character's obscurity and the movie's unusual visuals, I think it is appropriate in this case to do a traditional origin story. If for no other reason than to get the general public interested in him beyond his introduction.
 
BrianLo

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
Animaniac93-98 said:
Now at 97% with 36 reviews.

A common criticism seems to be the formulaic plot. Given the character's obscurity and the movie's unusual visuals, I think it is appropriate in this case to do a traditional origin story. If for no other reason than to get the general public interested in him beyond his introduction.
Click to expand...

I'm very excited for the movie and a big proponent of Rotten Tomatoes...

What is interesting to me is that every review reads the movie is 'good-very good' and the RT score implies 'excellence-amazing'.

I'm kind of surprised the score is holding so far, not that it doesn't deserve it. Just that it is destroying other Marvel movies while most contents of the reviews say it is very solidly middle of the pack. One thing is for sure, it's very, very consistently liked.

Got my IMAX ticket!
 
D

doctornick

Well-Known Member
BrianLo said:
I'm very excited for the movie and a big proponent of Rotten Tomatoes...

What is interesting to me is that every review reads the movie is 'good-very good' and the RT score implies 'excellence-amazing'.

I'm kind of surprised the score is holding so far, not that it doesn't deserve it. Just that it is destroying other Marvel movies while most contents of the reviews say it is very solidly middle of the pack. One thing is for sure, it's very, very consistently liked.
Click to expand...

Of course, this is just how Rotten Tomatoes works. Sure, generally, the overall percentage gives a good idea how much a movie is liked -- a higher percentage probably means a "better" movie. But the nature of the the composite is more to show how recommended a film is, not how good it is. So, a high tomatometer score indicates a lot of critics give the film the proverbial "thumbs up" and feel it is worth spending time and money to watch the film, but not that they all think the film is perfect or without flaws.

That said, the "average rating" on the site is probably a better indication of where a movie falls on the terrible to excellent scale. Dr. Strange right now is 7.3/10, which is in the upper half of MCU films for that scale but not at the top -- it looks like The Avengers is the best at 8.0/10 -- which seems to be consistent with the reviews. The general gist I get is that this is an upper half of the MCU film, with a relatively unremarkable and acceptable plot, but great visuals and acting.

I don't think it's all that surprising that MCU films tend to do well on the Rotten Tomato score. They are all generally watchable/enjoyable films even if they do have their flaws. Usually critics will be favorable to films with quality structure, good characters and logical plots. They may not love a film or think it is perfect but they (collectively) won't dump on it if its fun and and executes proper film making form.

However, we are surely going to get a bunch of negative reviews sooner or later -- probably right before the US opening next weekend when more mainstream American critics tend to put them out. That's the folks that tend to grade more harshly for comic book films and (to stereotype a bit here) refer to the genre as a pox on Hollywood and keep talking about the "inevitable" comic book fatigue.
 
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Matt_Black

Matt_Black

Well-Known Member
Yeah, you need to look at both the percentages for the critics AND the audience. For instance, I looked up Antz and saw that it had a whopping 96%! When you click on it you see that that is for the critics; the audience scores are around 51%. Of COURSE the critics are going to give it high marks because it has Woody Allen.
 
Princess Leia

Princess Leia

Well-Known Member
Well, after not being interested in seeing it, a friend wanted to, so I tagged along last night. Here are some quick thoughts.


The Cast:

Benedict Cumberbatch- does not seem to be able to successfully speak in a Northern American accent. He wasn’t bad in the role though. It was like Tony Stark on steroids when it came to the snark. It just felt like I’ve seen him play a suffering know it all with few friends running around London- oh wait.

Chiwetal Ejiofor- Excellent performance. Marvel, this is how you (spoiler alert) set up a villain in your movies. Sure, this was Stephen Strange’s origin story as a hero, but it also was Baron Mordo’s as a villain. As a result, the theater going public will actually give a damn whenever he shows up again. Marvel films still have a villain problem for characters not named Loki, but this seems to fix that a bit.

Rachel McAdams- glorified cameo, I am not kidding. She was there, she was spooked, and she was upset. That’s about it. Did she have to be there? Not really (don’t get me wrong, I love Rachel, but she got third billing for being spooked or verbally abused for 2/3rds of her screen time). Halfway through the movie I had to strive to remember her name.

Benedict Wong (what are the odds of two Benedicts in one movie?)- As the sole Asian character in which half the movie is set in Nepal, he mostly served as comic relief. I liked him; but I really noticed how he seemed to be the only Asian man who could speak at the retreat/home/library.

Mads Mikkelsen- what’s up Hannibal? There was a moment where he even had a mask/gag on his face. I can’t remember his name. I think it started with a K. Kacillius? Idk, mostly just there to get Dorammu (spelling?) into the movie and make me miss Hannibal. (Marvel, remember that weak villain problem I was literally just talking about? If I can't remember their name, that's an issue)

Tilda Swinton- she had a great performance… for someone who should have never been cast in the role to begin with. I understand that Disney wants to have a success in China, so they didn’t want to be involved in a feud about Tibet; but they set the Asian scenes in Katmandu, Nepal. They could have cast an actor or actress from Nepal. But they didn’t. They changed Mordo from white to black, which worked, so idk why they didn’t cast an actor of Asian descent for the Ancient One.

Effects- holy moly they were pretty!! Like, seriously, well done! Major kudos to the animators. I never like seeing movies in 3D, but this was worth it!

Infinity Stone watch: yes. I predicted it halfway into the movie, but it's importance wasn't a huge deal.

Credits scenes- one in the middle and one at the end
 
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RandomPrincess

RandomPrincess

Keep Moving Forward
Original Poster
Direwolf27 said:
Well, after not being interested in seeing it, a friend wanted to, so I tagged along last night. Here are some quick thoughts.


The Cast:

Benedict Cumberbatch- does not seem to be able to successfully speak in a Northern American accent. He wasn’t bad in the role though. It was like Tony Stark on steroids when it came to the snark. It just felt like I’ve seen him play a suffering know it all with few friends running around London- oh wait.

Chiwetal Ejiofor- Excellent performance. Marvel, this is how you (spoiler alert) set up a villain in your movies. Sure, this was Stephen Strange’s origin story as a hero, but it also was Baron Mordo’s as a villain. As a result, the theater going public will actually give a damn whenever he shows up again. Marvel films still have a villain problem for characters not named Loki, but this seems to fix that a bit.

Rachel McAdams- glorified cameo, I am not kidding. She was there, she was spooked, and she was upset. That’s about it. Did she have to be there? Not really (don’t get me wrong, I love Rachel, but she got third billing for being spooked or verbally abused for 2/3rds of her screen time). Halfway through the movie I had to strive to remember her name.
Benedict Wong (what are the odds of two Benedicts in one movie?)- As the sole Asian character in which half the movie is set in Nepal, he mostly served as comic relief. I liked him; but I really noticed how he seemed to be the only Asian man who could speak at the retreat/home/library.

Mads Mikkelsen- what’s up Hannibal? There was a moment where he even had a mask/gag on his face. I can’t remember his name. I think it started with a K. Kacillius? Idk, mostly just there to get Dorammu (spelling?) into the movie and make me miss Hannibal. (Marvel, remember that weak villain problem I was literally just talking about? If I can't remember their name, that's an issue)

Tilda Swinton- she had a great performance… for someone who should have never been cast in the role to begin with. I understand that Disney wants to have a success in China, so they didn’t want to be involved in a feud about Tibet; but they set the Asian scenes in Katmandu, Nepal. They could have cast an actor or actress from Nepal. But they didn’t. They changed Mordo from white to black, which worked, so idk why they didn’t cast an actor of Asian descent for the Ancient One.

Effects- holy moly they were pretty!! Like, seriously, well done! Major kudos to the animators. I never like seeing movies in 3D, but this was worth it!

Infinity Stone watch: yes. I predicted it halfway into the movie, but it's importance wasn't a huge deal.

Credits scenes- one in the middle and one at the end
Click to expand...


I'm not sure why he had to have an American accent. I understand the character in the comics is an American but does it really matter where Dr. Strange was born. Especially since his American accent is iffy. I was already side-eyeing it just based on the trailer. Just sounds off.
 
Princess Leia

Princess Leia

Well-Known Member
Oh, another thing- I actually paid attention to the soundtrack for the first time in a Marvel film since Winter Soldier (not including GOTG, since it was mostly a pop/rock soundtrack). Michael Giacchino did an excellent job.
 
Minthorne

Minthorne

Well-Known Member
I saw a preview of the movie for DVC members last Saturday at the AMC at Disney Springs - it was a slow start for the backstory with a lot of exposition, but once it took off it was a fun show. The final battle was a bit anti-climactic. Stay through the credits - it is worth it.
 

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