Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

I was a bit slow to the party with Dr. Strange. I don’t really like magic and sorcery-based characters, for reasons that are both spiritual and narrative-based (characters’ abilities are so often so frustratingly vague). But Marvel Studio’s cross-pollination strategy is pretty effective, and after seeing Benedict Cumberbatch in Thor Ragnarok and Infinity War and Endgame and No Way Home, I decided to give his solo films a go.

Spoilers ahead, plus a lot of ranting. You have been warned.

A Most Wanted Man

A Most Wanted Man is apparently the late Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final film performance (although the next Hunger Games movies is still on its way), and certainly in it he doesn’t look at all well.  I have no idea how much of that is acting and how much (if any) is actually failing health, but from a film performance point of view it doesn’t matter, because Hoffman does a solid and praiseworthy job playing Günther Bachmann, the head of a small group of investigators operating out of Hamburg, where the 9-11 attacks were apparently planned, charged with the task of making sure that such a thing never happens again in that city.  When they become aware of the illegal arrival of a suspicious Chechen with a violent past, they see an opportunity to take down a respectable Muslim statesman who is secretly laundering money to terrorist organizations.