Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. More D23 goodness on the way! I've already talked about Captain America: Civil War from Marvel's presentation, now it's time to shift over to Doctor Strange.
The movie doesn't start filming until November, but Kevin Feige felt strongly about there being a presence at the Con, so we got a couple of interesting goodies.
Benedict Cumberbatch is doing Hamlet on the West End, so he couldn't be there, but he did send a video that began with him flashing us the Vulcan salute and going “Oh, sorry. Wrong movie...”
His talk in the video was mostly devoted to making sure we knew that Doctor Strange wasn't going to be your typical superhero movie. Sometimes actors can look like they're going through the motions when doing these publicity/fan service videos, but I gotta say that Cumberbatch seemed pretty fired up talking about this character. There was definitely a twinkle in his eye when he said the words “astral projection.”
Feige then took back control of the stage and intro'd a video montage of Doctor Strange production art that gave us the set up for the story. You'll have to forgive my relative ignorance of Doctor Strange from the comics. I read the Defenders as a kid, but other than a few crossovers I never really dug into his books, so I'm not the most knowledgable dude on this particular character. I might say something that's in the “no shit” camp when describing the art. You've been warned.
So, the first stuff we saw was Dr. Stephen Strange at work in a very sterile operating room, but it had a bit of a sleek edge to it. Lots of cold lights, shiny stainless steel counters and all that stuff.
We were told that he was a brilliant neural surgeon who gets in a car accident that takes away his most important tools: his hands. There was art of an overturned car, broken tail lights and shattered glass making it extra dramatic. Also art of a sad Strange in the hospital, hands and head bandaged.
He goes on a search for some kind of recovery and that brings him to The Ancient One. There were two pieces of art that I saw with this character in them. One was further away, hand out and only the shoulder or head of a kneeling Strange and the other was pretty close up showing magic training or some kind of fight between the character and Strange.
With that first piece it was hard to make out any details, but the closer image was definitely and older Asian man. Considering this is the role Tilda Swinton is playing that leads me to believe A) this art was done before she was cast or B) we're in for a weeeeiiiirrrdddd movie. Or C) I misread it because I don't know shit about Dr. Strange. One of those is likely correct.
My favorite pieces showed some bizarre astral plane stuff... kinda looked like a trippier version of the crazy space/time library sequence from Interstellar. I also really dug seeing the art showing the actors in their projected costumes.
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo looked pretty cool. His costume was the Mordo green, but a bit more tailored and darker than the image of the character I have in my mind. The look on his face was more mischievous than evil, but there was a calm certainty to the smirk that was a bit off-putting.
Cumberbatch as Strange was just about as perfect as can be. Yes, he wore a red cape with that distinctive high pointy collar and yes, he wore a familiar amulet around his neck. Even a dummy like me knows what the Eye of Agamotto is.
His overall look was pretty similar to those fan art versions of Cumberbatch with the goatee and salt and pepper temples.
The whole thing ended with what I imagine was an effects test for how Strange summons mystic bolts. A bit of a theatrical hand movement mixed with a kind of chopsocky kung fu move and yellow energy was swirling around Strange's arms, exploding out in a focused blast when he thrust his fists out.
Looks cool and the fact that it's breaking the current Superhero origin story trend with a big whopping dose of weird feels like just what the doctor order. Pun fully intended.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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