To my surprise, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness isn’t about the fallout from Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Peter Parker almost destroying the multiverse in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Rather the focus of this movie is the walking plot device America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), who has the natural but uncontrolled ability to travel between universes. In Marvel Comics, America Chavez is one of the young woke superheroes that the company came up with in recent years. Both she and her parents are lesbians, which means this movie will probably be banned in Communist China (and Florida, same difference).
America is in danger because of none other than Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olson), who was last seen on the streaming show WandaVision, hearing the voices of her imaginary sons while consulting the Darkhold, the ultimate book of black magic that she ripped off of Agatha Harkness. It seems the Darkhold has not only tempted but absolutely corrupted Wanda. It showed her that her sons physically exist in other universes, so she’s decided to sacrifice Chavez in order to steal her power and make her family real again, so when Chavez appears in “universe 616” Strange has to help.
As with No Way Home, I thought this was a good Marvel action movie, but it still left a sour taste in my mouth. Namely because Wanda is rather abruptly turned into a straight-up villain who’s so far gone that there’s only one way for her to go out. Yes, there are lots of examples of how someone can have a superficially good idea and become so obsessed that they take it way too far (for example, Thanos, or the entire Republican Party). But to my mind, this decision completely erased the moral of WandaVision, in which Wanda rejected solipsism and power-madness for the real world and learned to accept grief. This also erased the character growth of that series, in which Elizabeth Olson gave one of the best performances in any Marvel Cinematic Universe project to date.
If nothing else, the Multiverse concept allowed this movie to provide a whole bunch of fan-pleasing cameo appearances, as well as an expanded role for Rachel McAdams as Strange’s ex(?) girlfriend. And it allowed for several minutes of Doctor Strange walking around as a zombie, which is when you know you’re watching a Sam Raimi movie.