Doctor Strange
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: November 4, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 49 Critic Reviews
Positive:
40
Mixed:
7
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonNov 3, 2016
Doctor Strange doesn’t always make sense — but so what? It’s a mind-blowing special-effects extravaganza, and the most exciting comic-book flick since “Deadpool.” Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 4, 2016
Doctor Strange doesn’t break formula, and no, they will never ever be able to surprise us with his origin story again. It’s still head, shoulders and cloak above so much of what’s being churned out the seemingly bottomless vaults of Marvel and DC Comics. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 3, 2016
What Robert Downey, Jr. is to "Iron Man" and Ryan Reynolds is to "Deadpool" – that's what Benedict Cumberbatch is to Doctor Strange. By that I mean, he's everything. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanNov 3, 2016
You know you’re in a top-drawer Marvel Comics adaptation when even the Stan Lee cameo is clever. Read full review
88
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeOct 23, 2016
The action climaxes with a truly impressive finale, one that employs time going in multiple directions that’s like nothing I’ve ever seen in a movie before. The effects shots here aren’t just visually impressive; they actually let the narrative go to places it couldn’t without this level of, you’ll pardon the expression, wizardry. Read full review
83
MTV NewsAmy NicholsonNov 3, 2016
For the first time, a Marvel movie draws that pencil line from dream to screen. Where the earlier films felt hard and shiny and steel-colored — the look of bashing action figures on a sidewalk — Strange is ink-smudged and obsessive. It's defiantly old-school — not the cozy, apple-scented nostalgia of the first Captain America film, but that cold, back-of-the-library whiff of eraser nubs and mold. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallNov 2, 2016
A nice balance of solemn myth making and genre irreverence lifts Doctor Strange to Marvel's first tier of movie franchises. Read full review
83
ConsequenceAllison ShoemakerNov 2, 2016
Doctor Strange lacks the bloat that’s made other recent, blockbusting superhero films fall flat. It doesn’t lean too hard on the considerable talents of its stars, nor does it waste their talents. It keeps a brisk pace, but doesn’t rush. It gets weird, but not too weird. And if all else fails, it’ll make your jaw drop from time to time. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyOct 24, 2016
Doctor Strange is thrilling in the way a lot of other Marvel movies are. But what makes it unique is that it’s also heady in a way most Marvel movies don’t dare to be. It’s eye candy and brain candy. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNov 3, 2016
This is a rare case in which Marvel has freed a director’s imagination instead of straitjacketing it. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangNov 3, 2016
One of the pleasures of Doctor Strange is the way it both wholly embraces and gently mocks the unapologetic geekiness of the enterprise. Read full review
80
SlateJacob BroganNov 3, 2016
Ultimately, though, it’s Doctor Strange’s return to its protagonist’s long lost psychotherapeutic roots that works best. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 3, 2016
The space-and-time warping and mirrored realities in Doctor Strange are a blast. They’re inventive enough that they awaken wonder, provoking that delicious question: How did they do that? Read full review
80
CineVueBen NicholsonOct 25, 2016
While it hardly pushes the envelope in terms of developing Marvel's homogenous narrative conveyor-belt, it does do so in other areas, suggesting that the MCU can see beyond the confines of its first two phases. Read full review
80
EmpireJames DyerOct 24, 2016
A bizarre and beautiful detour on the Marvel journey, which culminates in a mind-bending, expectation-inverting final act. Not to be watched under the influence. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyOct 24, 2016
Perhaps the strangest aspect of Doctor Strange, within the lockstep rubric of these things, is how non-Marvelly it manages to feel. Read full review
80
Total FilmJames MottramOct 24, 2016
Cumberbatch fits Doctor Strange like a pair of snap-tight surgical gloves, in yet another MCU triumph. Beautifully designed, brilliantly executed. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 24, 2016
It’s a tremendously engaging and likeable superhero ride, in which the classiest of casts show they know exactly where to take it seriously – and where to inject the fun. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyOct 23, 2016
To his credit, director Scott Derrickson...navigates through the different zones with a fair degree of actual coherence, and delivers the entire package with evident ease and some flair. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeOct 23, 2016
Yes, this new project shares the same look, feel, and fancy corporate sheen as the rest of Marvel’s rapidly expanding Avengers portfolio, but it also boasts an underlying originality and freshness missing from the increasingly cookie-cutter comic-book realm of late. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovNov 2, 2016
A tight, compact, and visually sumptuous origin story that revels in the surrealistic vision of Doctor Strange’s legendary creator and artist Steve Ditko. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 3, 2016
Although the comic book tropes are all in place, the acting, tone, and visual effects keep them from becoming tedious. This is yet another solid building block in the foundation to Marvel’s ever-expanding superhero fortress. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenNov 3, 2016
Director/co-screenwriter Scott Derrickson generally keeps the massive enterprise moving smoothly along. The trip’s the trip here, and it’s well worth taking. Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartNov 3, 2016
With a mischievous, metaphysical flourish, Doctor Strange administers some much-needed CPR to the flagging superhero genre. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel — a power-hungry villain (Mads Mikkelsen) tries to unleash hell on Earth, blah blah blah — but it’s a heck of a lot more fun than I’ve had at a Marvel movie lately. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTom RussoNov 3, 2016
The upshot: The movie develops a distinctively trippy identity. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 3, 2016
Cumberbatch fleshes out a portrait of uncompromised and resolute selfhood. In that way, he carries us and the movie over some long stretches of blue-screen emptiness. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Nov 2, 2016
“Cool enough” doesn’t do justice to this blockbuster’s city - and reality-bending set pieces. “Awe-inspiring” is closer. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 2, 2016
This latest in the ever-broadening Marvel movie landscape is fun. For an effects-laden franchise launch it's light on its feet, pretty stylish, worth seeing in Imax 3-D (for once, the up-charge is worth it) and full of tasty, classy performers enlivening the dull bits. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJake ColeNov 2, 2016
Nothing that Marvel Studios has produced can compare to the visual splendor of Scott Derrickson's Doctor Strange. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittOct 23, 2016
Derrickson (Sinister) crafts a trippy phantasmagoria for Strange to fly screaming through as he begins his path to sorcerer supreme. The only thing missing is a Doors jam as the sequence unfolds a dizzying blend of psychedelia, geometric oddities and nightmarish dreamscapes. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekNov 4, 2016
Doctor Strange has one significant quality that most Marvel adaptations lack: A sense of humor about itself, which it wears as lightly as the most gossamer Cloak of Levitation. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 2, 2016
Derrickson’s use of computer-generated action is a strength instead of a strain, and it’s not just showing off; in the context of the film, the bizarre images make sense. Read full review
70
The VergeBryan BishopNov 2, 2016
Doctor Strange is at its most entertaining when it’s unapologetically different from anything Marvel has done before. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlOct 31, 2016
It's not all that strange, but it's restlessly arresting and always technically impressive. Unlike most studio franchise fantasies, Doctor Strange rewards the eye rather than assaults it. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonOct 23, 2016
Entertaining in its grand flourishes but spottier when it comes to character work and thematic coherence, the film boasts a slightly darker and more mystical air than its peers, accentuated by some of the most arresting set pieces in the MCU canon. Read full review
67
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodOct 23, 2016
Make no mistake; there is no disputing this is clearly one of Marvel’s better efforts. And, yes, attempting to break from the expected shackles of a lineage of other origin movies is difficult, but you still feel the formula straining at the core of Doctor Strange. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichOct 23, 2016
As with all of the best installments of the MCU, the film’s unique strengths have a perverse way of highlighting the franchise’s shared weaknesses. But Doctor Strange deserves credit for treating several of the ailments that have been infecting the series, and for diagnosing several more. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanNov 3, 2016
All in all, Doctor Strange is a fun and trippy excursion to a place where Marvel rarely seems to go: that is, to the retinal roots of the comics. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniNov 3, 2016
The film is surprisingly engaging. It’s fun. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comAngelica Jade BastienNov 2, 2016
For all of its wondrous world-building and trippy effects, Doctor Strange isn’t the evolutionary step forward for Marvel that it needs to be storytelling-wise. Underneath all of its improvements, the core narrative is something we’ve seen countless times. Read full review
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