Doctor Strange – 2016
This was one of those movies in which the fantasy imagery was really on another level. It clearly required a lot of imagination and innovation. It would have been so easy for the magic effects to appear silly or cartoonish, but they didn’t. Even though there is no real-life comparison to go by, they looked completely realistic.
Of course, one of the major action sequences in the film had already been done before. In the scene, Doctor Strange and his enemies battle in the fantastic Mirror Dimension, where a city is bent, folded, warped, stretched, twisted, shuffled, and magically rearranged. They took the effect that we saw in the 2010 Best Visual Effects winner, Inception, and enhanced it a hundred-fold. Director, Scott Derrickson, confirmed that this was not a coincidence. It was inspiration. The whole sequence was like a fast-paced M.C. Escher design in motion. But that was just one of the wonderful effects we were treated to. The film dealt with a certain style of sorcery, and it was given its own unique look that was perfect for a superhero movie. The tools, weapons, and shields that were conjured as sparking light and glowing kaleidoscopic patterns that resembled artistic mandalas. They were flashy, beautiful, and just plain cool.
And then there was the climax of the movie that took place in the Dark Dimension. It was all bright rainbow colors and shapes against the void of a black background. It was designed to look grand and majestic, but dark and forbidding at the same time. And the evil Dormamu was the best part with his glowing purple eyes and his flesh that looked like rippling tree bark. He was so big that he looked like just a floating head, though every now and then, I could see what looked like shoulders and a torso. The design work was just so cool!
But there were plenty of other effects that were just as cool, and just as perfectly executed. There was the horrific car crash at the beginning of the movie, the astral projection scenes with their ghostly floating people, and the Cloak of Levitation, which was like a character in its own right. One of my favorite little effects was the magical device that ensnared and immobilized the evil sorcerer, Kaecilious. It just looked awesome as it wrapped around him, forced him to his knees, and bound him into a prone position in which he could not use his magic.
This was a CGI-heavy movie, and I know that there are people who hate movies that rely too much on digital imagery. But if the animated effects are done well, and they look as realistic as the live actors, sets, and props, then I say why not use the tools that we have available to us in the current age of technology? This movie lost the Oscar to The Jungle Book, but I think the wrong movie won. Then again, I’m a fan of superhero movies, so, like most people, my opinion is biased.