'Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness' and twenty other plot holes that no one cares about

Originally published in The Miami Student Newspaper

Hear me out, okay, this movie was good for the first thirty minutes.

Or maybe that’s because the power went out in the theater, causing us to wait an additional thirty minutes for the movie to resume. I had a great time with friends though, making jokes, singing 99 bottles of milk on the wall, and debating if we ask the managers for free popcorn. All good things.

Then the movie started again, along with my slowly building headache for whoever writes these movies.

The film starts with Dr. Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, attempting to steal a glowing blue book with his sidekick, America Chavez, played by Xochitl Gomez. When he attempts to steal America’s power for the “greater good” of the universe, the real Dr. Strange wakes up from his nightmare.

The number of eye rolls that occurred is countless whenever the concept of dreams came up. I’m a Creative Writing major; I know these writers can do better than using campy dream tropes.

Dr. Strange then meets America in the real world during a fight with an unnamed eyeball monster that is killed in classic Sam Rami style, one of many gory moments in this movie. He needs to protect America from other potential monsters wanting to harness his power, so who does he visit? The only person who would have any interest in multidimensional travel is oh, I don’t know, the one trying to find her “imaginary” children? Ring a bell, Strange?

Maybe I’m being too hard on introducing Wanda into the story, but making her seem like an innocent apple farmer didn’t build any sympathy for the rest of her actions in the film.

If there are two things you need to know about “Multiverse of Madness,” it’s that Wanda is a mom and she will do anything in her power to become one yet again. That’s it. Her whole character is centered around her devotion to motherhood. There was a small blip where I thought she might turn into the villain I imagined, a powerful witch who creates her own reality with the power of the Scarlet Witch, but no, she just goes right back to wanting her “imaginary” kids and being the victim.

Wanda is arguably the most powerful character in the MCU, and the writers want to convince me that she has the potential to rule the multiverse as the Scarlet Witch but rejects it in favor of motherhood. Discussing this movie with friends made me ask why using her magic to recreate her kids wasn’t an option. If a simple solution like this can change the entire plot, then why did any of Wanda’s actions happen?

Also, I know I’m not the only Marvel fan complaining about these children. If you’ve seen Wandavision, you know Wanda created her children with chaos magic inside the Hex. Once the Hex was removed, so were her children and “imaginary” Vision. How these kids exist in other universes is beyond me because Vision is not with Wanda in any of them.

America even says that she’s the only version of herself that exists in all the multiverse, yet somehow Wanda’s kids that she created with magic appear in every universe. And none of the logic is explained in the film if you couldn’t tell. It’s times like these when I feel like a conspiracy theorist trying to prove some outlandish claim to my niche online 50-person Twitter following.

Marvel didn’t think through Wanda’s plot at all and it shows.

Beyond the many problems I have with Wanda and the Scarlet Witch, this movie was a cameo dump if I’ve ever seen one. I think there were seven total cameos with five or six all within the same two minutes. The worst part is that five of those cameos become completely irrelevant for the rest of the movie. Yeah, they’ll be important for future films, but something like this would never happen if the plot actually made sense.

America was a witty Gen Z character, Wong was funny as usual and the visuals were nice, but I’m so tired of Marvel getting away with so many missing plot details. You’re telling me I torturously sat through the entire “Loki” series without a single mention of what happened in that show appearing in this film? The multiverse literally broke in that show, so does the series happen after “Multiverse of Madness” occurs? This will require a fan-made timeline, won’t it?

Marvel needs to stick to making TV series because if they release another movie like “Dr. Strange: Multiverse of Madness,” I’ll walk out in the middle of the movie, sparring myself the headache and time lost watching CGI effects with no narrative purpose.

Rating: 1/10