Calling this film Dr. Strange vs Scarlet Witch would have been a more fitting title. Would I have preferred a villain like Nightmare or Mephisto? Sure, but I will take what we got here. If anyone is going to complain about anything it would be the depth of the story. This lack of depth gave it more of a comic feel and made me think that director Sam Rami might have read some Dr Strange comics from the 70s. Marvel said it was going to be a horror movie, and it was not. Is there talk of demons and a darker tone than say the Avengers movies? Yes, but that does not make it a horror movie, so do not go into this expecting that. Yes, I know there have been comparisons made to "Army of Darkness" but the iconic Sam Rami film might be connected to "Evil Dead" but it's not a horror movie either. Is it a lot of fun yes, but does it scare you ? No thus not a horror movie, the same can be said for this movie.
The movies biggest enemy was the internet that had set up expectations that everyone was going to be in the movie, and I think the What If Series was helping to set the tone. With that said the number of new characters introduced into the MCU felt right, it did not feel cluttered. The guest appearances of the cheer rousing Reed Richards, who got the loudest applause of any moment in the theater and his Illuminati partners gave me a lot more from these characters than I had bargained for going into this movie. Black Bolt looked and felt better, though I am not sure that mentioned the Inhumans, where the Fantastic Four was mentioned.
The end could have relied on America Chavez less, since well it was not her move, she is not a character who can hold her own movie but work well with someone like Captain Marvel. I was glad to see Charlize Theron's take on Clea, who I feel might have worked better than the Christine Relationship which never really felt like great chemistry from the first movie. But Cumberbatch shone in his role as he takes the character seriously and owns it. It never felt like they were apologizing for the source material. The action was balanced, and while all the Marvel movies have begun to take on a uniform CGI glaze it worked here.
