Half in the Bag Episode 118: Doctor Strange

half in the back star on my scale yesterday and it said one at a time please [Music] while Mike it's been a crazy few months in sports news I can't believe that the Chicago Cubs finally won the World Series and in politics the u.s. presidential election is over as well I can't believe that insert criminals name here won the election it's pretty strange and speaking of strange finally released in US theaters is Josh Mora parenthetical telugu star in karthik civic Umar Nayanthara and Sri Divya have you seen it no but I have seen dr. strange you think you know how the world works you think that this material universe is all there is but what if I told you the reality you know is one of many if you ever wanted to watch a film that was a perfect blend of Star Wars The Matrix Inception Iron Man Batman Begins Big Trouble in Little China The Last Airbender and dr. house m.d. then boo a Madea Halloween is the movie for you if you wanted to see a different film altogether then check out Marvel's Doctor Strange in this new literal expansion of the Marvel multiverse universe Eggs Benedict cabbage patch plays Doctor Strange a man that can do anything by channeling powers from the universe he learned this power from reading books and practice he went to Hong Kong to try to cure his busted up hands but ended up becoming a space magician battling some dudes who wanted to bring another space God to earth to become immortal oh and I guess he was also in love with Rachel McAdams because if he was just doing magic with a bunch of dudes he'd be dr. queer now dr. strange Mike what did you think of dr. strange uh it was strange I had no interest in dr. strange and there were certain things in the movie I liked but overall I enjoyed it sort of and but was also kind of bored and wanting wanting more hmm would you be shocked to learn that the dr. strange character was created in the 60s no no I would not those are the aspects of the movie that I liked I'll say this the biggest complaints that people that aren't really into the Marvel movies have cut about all the Marvel movies as a whole is that in general they have weak villains the origin stories are always really lopsided where the first half is an origin story and then oh so we need to have a fight a villain in the second half and it always feels rushed and the female characters are underwritten and or unnecessary all those things are prevalent in this movie and I would agree that those are the weakest points in the movie and yet I still really really liked the movie despite those because almost exclusively because of the strength of the visuals and the creativity of the set pieces well that's what this movie was it was set piece the movie which I was fine with in this particular case it's not like the the character of Doctor Strange is weak or the story was weak it was just very standard it was an excuse to hang all the weird stuff on yeah yeah but I wasn't I wasn't um like I've seen ads for the movie and they're like visually breathtaking you've never seen anything like it though are they really pushing that though yeah that's that's the angle they're pushing experience the film critics are raving will leave you spellbound when I when I was thinking they should really push the magic angle cuz I got the new Harry Potter movie coming out and the kids will why Doctor Strange Wyatt wizard battles wizard battles yeah but they're pushing the the twisty I'm twisting up New York City inceptions sessions to mind-boggling but I'm just like its visually stunning you're gonna like is the real film Ward scene in 3d I don't want to be like like an armchair like visual effects person but I'm just like I don't care anymore and I noticed the guy next to me a couple seats done just goes man I'm chickened out like they said something like that and I smelled booze it's a good example of movie rollercoaster ride yeah insert joke of me and the little Halloween cart right here you're right origin story first half got to fight this this boring villain and then we said we great we set up that origin story for Doctor Strange too well when he's gonna find another boring villain I felt this this this great sense of blandness when I was watching it because I want I'm sitting there I'm like you know what I really miss in movies I miss a villain I just hate and I didn't hate the villain he's I got purple eyes I won't do a thing he's adequate everything in this movie is adequate I didn't you're introduced to their secret society of magician wizards and you're like here's the stakes you know we can't dabble with Dark Arts which was our Star Wars II don't use the dark side it'll lead to bad things and then this guy wants to do something and then and then so it's like that's all there and and I was he calls him an [ __ ] Doctor Strange calls the bad guy an [ __ ] at one point and I'm like I miss movies from the 70s and the 80s I was thinking a big trouble little China a lot in this movie because white guy and Asian culture crazy [ __ ] yeah and so I'm like I want Kurt Russell like just saying weird things and being stupid I want swearing I want Valle Garrety I want a bad guy I hate I want and it's like so bland we can't do this we can't do that and and a lot of this was fueled in the back of my mind by an article I read that said dr. strange is racist oh yeah movies racist because it's a man from the West it's when Western medicine fails we look towards the east and the East is all mystical and spiritual and so the West or its cultural appropriation of the East and then I'm like like clash of cultures is sort of driving force of the movie well they're saying that you know when the white man from the West runs out of options he goes to the mysticism of the East and rape sites and that was basically the articles point and and then I also saw the trailer for the new Mad Diamond film before us oh yeah the Great Wall yeah from visionary director you've never heard of it's a Chinese film and then they're saying they're Matt Damon you're whitewashing and he's like uh I'm just in the movie they hired me the film's [ __ ] made in China by Chinese people and they wanted me because of my name and then so and then like it's a whitewash get oh my god and so everyone's like on eggshells about topics I just see a movie where everyone swears and there's a bad guy hate and dr. strange is [ __ ] weird and instead it's just like tiptoeing on all these little things and and then I'm just oh look at the city is twisting around you did that with her computers I don't know today I'm gonna say in defense of the effects cuz we're great well the effects are great but I think we've often talked about how like the effects in every movie are great now to the point where you just sort of numb to it as you're talking about now but the problem with all these other movies is they can do anything but everything just kind of looks the same they're they're not very imaginative you know it's like like oh there's a CG Ninja Turtle you know and things like that this movie is doing things that I've never seen in a movie before on this scale so I'm an inception well that's the thing I was inception because Christopher Nolan's a wet blanket he's the we're in a dream world we can do anything we want Oh a couple buildings turns and he keeps it very grounded even though it's a dream world so to see movie go this far off into fantasy and I mean there's a whole sequence that looks like it's like a like a 60s album covered you know brought to life and animated and moving and all that stuff I I appreciated seeing something that was that Scott creative and elaborate that actually went farther than than most of these modern movies do I guess your my appreciation for the appreciation for the movie is completely reliant on the visuals and the filmmaking because the story is blind is [ __ ] well yeah I mean I appreciated the visuals but I mean you of all people know that a special effect without a story is pretty boring things oh sure I mean well this is someone one side who said that us Steven Spielberg oh okay Steven Spielberg's non-union Mexican equivalent okay what they're doing is showing off the amount of work that they generated and it slows the pace of the film then the story is not the settings the story is story's plot a special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing uh but yeah and in general I agree with that but this movie for me just felt like such a breath of fresh air as far I wish it had a better story I wish that it didn't have the origin story if we just went right into weirdness there's like a five minute prologue or something well that's what I would have I would have liked it even more but just on if the the strength of the filmmaking and the visuals it was compared to everything else we see lately that was enough for me yeah well the thing is is Marvel's success has been primarily because of writing the line and playing it safe yeah that's another thing I want to talk about is the humor Beyonce that's a colleague I am above it all those jokes because you got to ride that line can't get too weird can't get too boring but what's this my mantra it's the Wi-Fi password god I had the rock songs now because it was successful in the other movie with Chris Pratt guardians guardians galaxy this time it needed to go in the Deadpool route where Deadpool did not ride the line they said [ __ ] [ __ ] you were swearing we're having nudity we're we're breaking the fourth wall Doctor Strange need to do that a little more in my opinion I mean it's not a bad movie it's a fine movie I was just bored by all the action and the only thing I liked spoilers from Iran oh okay the only thing I liked was in the end when he does a little trick with the demon from the other dimension that ending was amazing there wasn't a city being destroyed yeah it was actually destruction being put back together yeah that was like okay great you know but hid the whole premise of the ending was I figured out earlier in the film by dabbling in the dark arts the Dark Dimension or whatever that I can do the spell that that reverses time it shows him with the Apple like he eats the Apple down and then makes the Apple come back reverses and forwards time and so he tricks the demon in the end in a time loop and it's like hey and he's jumping over and I could go through this all of the direct let me out of this it's simply a clever thing that he learned earlier in the film to bargain with the villain instead of just tons of fighting and punching faceless henchmen but it's also a lot of like weird he's like I'm going off to this weird dimension purple bacteria yeah lots of neon lights yeah and I'm like okay that's great this is fun can you spend the half of the movie in this dimension now we gotta do kung fu fights and we got a run up and down things and I was like I don't know what's going on I don't care so set-piece the movie set piece one opening with Tilda Swinton which was a bad way to start the movie I think if you're gonna do this origin story you know start it more grounded and build it up yeah you don't give away all of your like city bending effects in the first five so I would have been really exciting if the first time we see that is yes time naturally when Tilda Swinton shows up and then they go oh [ __ ] it's the ancient one let's get out of here even Mystery's over just a little bit of a parsing they keep it mysterious and so I was like here's here's everything here's our whole hand they're a full house here it is take a look folks now let's bet I got the whole movie all I pictured was Hugh Laurie and hahahaha as I aged with walking with the cane like popping vicodin the whole time I'm like I wish you Laurie was cast as dr. strange he was fine I do like that they made the character of dr. strange especially early on like genuinely kind of unlikable oh yeah I appreciated that I appreciated it when they did it an Iron Man well that's the thing though is unlike Iron Man because Tony Stark is very arrogant and neither has that same sort of smarmy attitude but he's also very charismatic Benedict Cumberbatch at least the way he plays this role he's not charismatic so he comes across way less likeable which I appreciated there's a scene early on when he gets in the accident his hands are all [ __ ] up and Rachel McAdams comes to see him and they get into an argument and there's a moment where he just says something like really cutting and mean and everyone in our theatre was like oh yeah well she says um you have a lot to live for and he's like what like you what like you and it was like I appreciated that they were willing to make him that much of a dick early on yeah I mean Tony Stark is a narcissist and an egomaniac genius and this guy's just a genius jerk yeah very similar storyline though I'm physically injured I have to repair myself and know if there comes my superpower and now I'm learning to do good there's three or four comic book origin stories that's pretty much it they all have the same basic setup yeah but then like you know there's there's it's it feels it feels like it's one of those movies that comes along every now and then where it feels like it's it's a bunch of ideas from five other things you know I think the central character was fine I liked Doctor Strange for the most part as a character it's really just the story is we've seen this before yeah and the dialogue is weak and yeah like we've mentioned the humor felt more forced than usual in these Marvel movies there's the Wong character and he's the librarian and and God benedict cumberbatch comes in he's like Wang just Wang like Adele and then he looks at the camera and waits for applause I got it real hold for applause I'm Anthony yeah he's like like Beyonce she's a great musician and the next scene Wang is listening to Beyonce it's like Oh got it there's never that scene Oh Batman Begins is another one because guy sure Christian Bale goes to the Orient that's still acceptable to say I don't think so he goes somewhere to Tibet right and this one it's Hong Kong he goes to Tibet I think in Batman Begins and then but that like that training stuff was was more stretched out and it was more like in this it's just he's there he's like fixed my hands out what's this acupuncture knots in the next scene it's like I read 70 books I'm done yeah that's another thing is it's it's hard to gauge the past like how much time passes in this movie like how long has he been training how long has he been there we don't really know and then he goes back and he sees rachel mcadams yeah it's like where have you been I was like he's only been gone for like a week it feels like yeah there's not that crucial scene where he's like he's broken and and changed it's very it's very it seems very easy for him to transition from Western ideals to the Eastern mythological spirituality stuff it seems just to bear it like very easy like I just read some books when and like Batman Begins it was seem more arduous yield you haven't beaten me you've sacrificed sure footing for a killing struck and felt more earned and you felt the passing of time you phoned yeah yeah and this is just like okay you know and I'm not expecting this to be like really brutal and realistic and it's a silly movie about a guy with the Cape the composer I'm not sure how to say his name right Michael Giacchino moujik giacchino Geonosis Geonosis he did the Star Trek score Star Trek the Star Trek this is has the Star Trek music in it and I don't know since the same score yeah it's it's same score with like like slight variations on a couple of the notes [Music] okay someone out there has to also notice this because that they played that same theme it's like the new Star Trek theme in the JJ Abrams movies okay and it's the exact same music in this it's really kind of shocking at um uh laziness see I I didn't notice it because I don't remember the music from Star Trek because so many movies have the most bland unforgettable most bland forgettable scores I know what you're saying with that but I do remember the Star Trek music and I can't hum it exactly but I could hear it and and this is exactly the same so someday someone needs to put those two tracks together maybe I'll do it and and just you can both listen to the tracks because just trust me on this trust me you put all your faith in an alcohol and though what to talking about I'm checking out let's talk about Rachel McAdams dr. strange is God case of the not gays Rachel makuu make great the lady from The Notebook oh I'm sure buddies me in this movie she's completely useless doctor so and so her purposes cases here's the case in the knock case as a doctor you think you could cure himself of been a case with a simple antibiotic Rachel McAdams is there and dr. strange is they dated his art is no he's not Liberace in a cape everybody can t be sure go ahead and leave Rachel McAdams out and have him have sex with Kong or whatever his name 101 out of library yeah why not leave Rachel McAdams out then but you know they had to establish his medical practice and the game will love interest but I thought there was going to be a Superman moment because he goes back to the hospital I'd been stabbed in my heart with something help me Rachel McAdams and then I have a whole action sequence and then he's like I've gotta go and then he's like oh wait wax on wax off yes mix makes the space whole and then there's some kind of Vista beyond him I don't know where he's going and I thought we were going to have a 1978 Superman scene where come see these crazy I see these crazy landscapes with me I'm going to take you on this romantic adventure and we're going to jump through portals and I'm gonna take you all over the world and then we're gonna have a nice smooch on a mountaintop in a beautiful landscape and then you're going to wake up at home and say did that happen and that would have been beautiful and lovely what they do instead he goes I have to go now bye I have to go fight a guy with purple eyeshadow on yeah with my magic friends and again something's happening I don't really know what but I got to go bye give me a little love story please give me a little love story well if you're gonna introduce that aspect of it or just keep it out completely yeah cuz I'm sure she won't be in the next one she has a busy hospital job like when remember when they tried to write off Natalie Portman's missingness from how did they even do it I don't remember he's like Jane Jane has some work in Africa with the Apes and then they just like moved on and then she's no she's gone I think that was a Jane Goodall joke I don't really know you're a man looking at the world through a keyhole you spent your whole life trying to widen that keyhole to see more to know more and now on hearing that it can be widened in ways you can't imagine you reject the possibility I rejected because I do not believe in fairytales about chakras or energy or the power belief don't less one's great in this movie yes it's nice to see her like ice I know that was sort of a part that also had controversy surrounding it because the character in the comics was like a wise old Asian man so why did they do that yeah well they were calling this whitewashing but I think it's sort of a damned if you do damned if you don't thing like if you keep the old Asian man then you have that stereotype the wise Asian mystical man a kind of trained ear trainer character so hu you do that and people complain that it's a stereotype you change and then people complain that it's not like it was in the comics so I think they just did what they could and I think Tilda Swinton's an interesting choice because you don't see especially a female in that type of role very often oh so it's shouldn't it be a gender empowering now well see people don't know what to make of it yeah it's whitewashing but it's Jenner and powering but it's avoiding stereotypes but I don't even know anymore I pushed your astral form out of you a physical form what's in that tea psilocybin LSD just tea with a little honey she said she's a kung fu Jedi Master who's going through chemotherapy yeah which is great I think this one seemed like an interesting actress that's not usually in these type of movies play that part I think was a good choice yeah they said she's from Celtic descent yeah sweet she's Irish didn't say she's Irish no Simon so like rough and awful yeah oh my god Irish what does she drink all day like I've come to those things with me we had fun together no you had fun they weren't about us they were about you not only about me Stephen everything is about you and that's there like everyone like someone Iron Man's a dick tip everyone in the S sassy and sarcastic and I kind of I kind of would have just liked dr. strange if he was just like a bitter broken man him cracking wise kind of just felt outside of the character yeah he worked better when he's played more straight I like the part where him and tilda swinton are like she's like you know acupuncture and Lowell and he's like ow God you know like holistic [ __ ] yeah and he's really like dismissive of it and and I like that aspect of him how he can learn but but we really didn't have those really crucial scenes where he's awakened yeah to this this new way of thinking it's sort of just like turn the page and now he's done it as they cut the training sequences all together have it be a five-minute prologue and have the movie just going heaven go bargain with giant's interdimensional monsters and that's the movie yeah that was the best stuff I'm Doctor Strange and I'm here if I have to leave the galaxy now okay yeah sure I would as something batshit crazy would have been fine so I don't know this is sort of middle of the through the mystic arts we harness energy and shape reality travel great distances in an instant [Music] I like it from here to there how did you become a doctor studying practice you're speaking for me and missed the mark on a lot of the the strengths of the Marvel movies which is their their blend of of doing something serious and then not taking it serious like there are moments in this movie where something dramatic would happen like at the end when the one guy who was like very strict to the you know don't mess with the rules of nature guy and he's like using you oh must always pay the mistakes will always be paid for or he says some line like that knee walks off and then Benedict Cumberbatch is like and I and then I'm like is this a serious moment or is he gonna go well what do you say we get some takeout you know like is that gonna happen yeah or is am I supposed to take this seriously like it didn't know when to to throw a joke in and I didn't know when to take the thing seriously because he would joke like the the what's his name Wang Wang Wang like was also adherent to the rules of don't mess with the rules of nature yeah and then so you know Doctor Strange is like I'm doing thing that's it has something to do with the darker it's what we're winning the fight against the bad guys and he's like is that okay Wong and he's like well if it's working ha ha ha ha ha and then essentially what the other guy says at the end is the same thing yeah and so I'm like I'm so drunk now it wasn't a Jew it was a joke before but now it's not a joke where's beyoncé oh we haven't made a dr. Strangelove joke this whole time Jay no and we haven't mentioned doctor Mordred what's that doctor Mordred is the 90s direct-to-video movie is produced by Charles bands who's responsible for puppet master and demonic toys and all that crap he's a stand-up guy yeah he's a very very good businessman and he's very respected air and honest and well liked well liked by a lot of people but he had the rights to do dr. strange at one point I don't know how we ended up with him but those rights lapsed and so he just made a movie anyway and he's called the doctor Mordred and the visual effects in dr. strange the new movie are almost as good as the effects in dr. Mordred I find that easy to believe [Music] so Jay would you recommend doctor Mordred uh no other than I mean if you like Jeffrey Combs a lot it's pretty great I do okay it's mostly a pretty boring movie though like all those full moon movies we got this fantastical crazy idea but then 90% of movies is people talking but would you recommend Dutch strange I would it has all the problems we've talked about it has a lot of the problems that a lot of Marvel movies have but for me I really you you seem to be kind of numb to the set pieces and the action stuff that's the stuff that really really worked for me and I I I thought just as a visual theater-going experience it was one of the more interesting movies I've seen this year I mean we've seen like there's like psychedelic sixties movies and there's a couple sequences in this movie that reminded me of that but but something done with like modern technology this elaborate unearthly with 1960s technology like shooting through a kaleidoscope like like weird like trippy stuff like that I probably would've liked it better it felt very clean very computer I just pictured thousands of animators animating it and sterile laboratory and it didn't have that same like like wow this is fresh and different it just felt like look at this here it is our computers turn these buildings isn't that great and I wasn't I wasn't amazed by that um and I should have been and that's the kind of depressing thing is that ending was neat where they were they were fighting while time was going slower or backwards or something yeah something's very different was happening I was like wow this this really should be neat but I'm not finding it very neat is it just more so that you just weren't engaged in like the story I think I think that might be it that's a big part of it and that is the weakness of the movie but for me the visuals kind of overpowered that a bit but you know you're you're it's always a safe bet with the Marvel movies and that that's the attribute the ringing attribute for this film is that it played it very safe and and that will work for a majority of audiences and it will make a lot of money and it will get well reviewed they didn't take a big risk with this one when they probably should have based on how weird the character is well Jay what are next [Music]

Channel: RedLetterMedia

Views: 1,205,654

Rating: 4.8720708 out of 5

Keywords: redlettermedia, red letter media, red, letter, media, plinkett, half in the bag, best of the worst, mike stokasa, jay bauman, rich evans, doctor strange, marvel, benedict cumberbatch

Id: GwlzbpzyFdE

Length: 29min 6sec (1746 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 07 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/IsaacAsciimov]

"And I guess he was in love with Rachel McAdams, because if he was just doing magic with a bunch of dudes, he'd be Doctor Queer, not Doctor Strange."

[u/Warald]

Mike raises a good question: what ARE next?

[u/JTRO_]

Mike is the one that doesn't like the Hollywood action movie and Jay's the one defending it? OHHHHHHHHHH MYYYYYYYYYYY GGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWDDDD

[u/Sennin_BE]

For those wondering about the soundtrack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ1TrKtOkxc#t=2m17s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5hBQDepXOE#t=38s

[u/NorrisOBE]

I noticed that the recent Marvel movies (especially some of my favourite recent ones) have an input that is certainly improving the "Marvel formula":

Visual comedy.

Just like Ant Man (which had tonnes of visually comedic scenes thanks to Edgar Wright and Adam McKay), Doctor Strange utilized an awesome Groundhog Day-esque finale thanks to Dan Harmon. That scene was WAY funnier than the Beyonce/pop culture quips in the film.

I say this to Marvel:

Keep up the visual humor. Don't just have your hero standing there and saying a joke or two. Have your ILM guys and stuntsmen bring in the comedy as well. You can still tamper around with the formula while still keeping it safe. Hell, you guys are already fucking rich out of the MCU films. You don't even need to keep it safe.

[u/ThePondererTK]

When you've found your life's calling and true purpose Jay is pretty much on the ball for Dr. Strange though, fantastic visuals with a satisfactory narrative to hold them up.

[u/smarten_up_nas]

Return to form for Mike in this one.

[u/flycounter]

Dr. Strange called that other doctor a "hack" in the movie, do you think he's an RLM fan!?!?!

[u/TexasDice]

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