(Dr.) Strange Times We Live In…
Last night, I went to see Marvel's "Doctor Strange" with my boyfriend. I'm trying to get back into blogging, so I thought I'd write a little about my impressions of the movie. One of the main themes/motifs at work here is time (and watches). Some spoilers follow under the cut.
First things first: I very much enjoyed the film. Benedict Cumberbatch's time has truly come and he carried the flick admirably (and I'm not just saying that as a fangirl). I can think of one incidence where his accent sounded off, and the role was sort of "playing to type" with the arrogant, not-so-good-with-social-interaction genius character, but Strange definitely comes around by the end to truly be a hero.
So, time. The first time motif is when Dr. Stephen Strange is playing a game (during surgery, no less) wherein he has to guess the artist, album, and year a song came out. The scene shows off some of the character's better qualities- meticulous attention to detail/great memory (he gets the month AND year correct).
In the next scene, time is used to show his negative attributes: arrogance and a desire to put others down (saying they don't have time for imaging guidance and he's just going to go without it; asking another surgeon to hide his watch, rudely).
Strange has at least a dozen fancy watches. But one in particular is important to the story: the one given to him by his ex-girlfriend, Christine. It has engraved on the back, "Time will tell how much I love you." (And it does- or, accurately, how much Strange truly loves her.) He fights to keep this watch from muggers, and that action seems to me to be the catalyst for Mordo bringing him to The Ancient One and his whole journey learning to become a sorcerer. The watch breaks during the encounter, symbolizing his own broken spirit- and, later, with the many broken glass facets each reflecting a slightly different version of the underlying watch face, his newfound understanding of the universe.
The plot with saving the world (trying to be vague in case you haven't seen the movie yet) is very much wrapped up in time. Villain Cassilius says it is the true enemy that human beings are battling. But he and the good guys have very different ideas of what "winning" that battle means. For Strange, it is only when he embraces time as the powerful force that it is, across ALL universes, and stops trying to fight it (essentially, trying to turn back time to be able to be a surgeon again) that he is able to come into his own as a hero.
First things first: I very much enjoyed the film. Benedict Cumberbatch's time has truly come and he carried the flick admirably (and I'm not just saying that as a fangirl). I can think of one incidence where his accent sounded off, and the role was sort of "playing to type" with the arrogant, not-so-good-with-social-interaction genius character, but Strange definitely comes around by the end to truly be a hero.
So, time. The first time motif is when Dr. Stephen Strange is playing a game (during surgery, no less) wherein he has to guess the artist, album, and year a song came out. The scene shows off some of the character's better qualities- meticulous attention to detail/great memory (he gets the month AND year correct).
In the next scene, time is used to show his negative attributes: arrogance and a desire to put others down (saying they don't have time for imaging guidance and he's just going to go without it; asking another surgeon to hide his watch, rudely).
Strange has at least a dozen fancy watches. But one in particular is important to the story: the one given to him by his ex-girlfriend, Christine. It has engraved on the back, "Time will tell how much I love you." (And it does- or, accurately, how much Strange truly loves her.) He fights to keep this watch from muggers, and that action seems to me to be the catalyst for Mordo bringing him to The Ancient One and his whole journey learning to become a sorcerer. The watch breaks during the encounter, symbolizing his own broken spirit- and, later, with the many broken glass facets each reflecting a slightly different version of the underlying watch face, his newfound understanding of the universe.
The plot with saving the world (trying to be vague in case you haven't seen the movie yet) is very much wrapped up in time. Villain Cassilius says it is the true enemy that human beings are battling. But he and the good guys have very different ideas of what "winning" that battle means. For Strange, it is only when he embraces time as the powerful force that it is, across ALL universes, and stops trying to fight it (essentially, trying to turn back time to be able to be a surgeon again) that he is able to come into his own as a hero.