After lots and lots of waiting, Marvel fans got what they have been waiting for: Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Dr. Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, returns in this new film battling the Scarlet Witch, played by Elizabeth Olsen. Before you keep reading, proceed with caution and know that this review will be filled with spoilers.

I was honestly really excited for this movie, especially after seeing Spider-Man: No Way Home. This movie was a let-down to say the least. I probably just think this because NWH exceeded all expectations. I just don’t think the film lived up to its title of “Multiverse of Madness.” I really thought we were gonna see Dr. Strange or other MCU characters in multiple multiverses but we really only saw two in depth. I should probably explain the multiverse before I go even further. To be honest, I don’t even completely understand the multiverse and I’m a huge Marvel fan. I think the easiest way to explain it is just to say it’s a ton of parallel universes that the inhabitants of these universes don’t know exists. For example, all of the Spider-Man movies take place in different universes but all follow the same storyline.

I was expecting many cameos in this movie that just did not happen. I was expecting different variants of past Avengers like Iron Man or even the return of Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Men. I was very excited when Peggy Carter showed up as a Captain America variant. Also, John Krasinski finally in the MCU? It took long enough. Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier making a comeback? Yes. These were really the only cameos which made me kind of upset. Don’t title a movie “Multiverse of Madness” if you’re only going to have a few variants.

I honestly was so excited for Wanda to finally have a film where she is a main character. Wandavision is one of my favorite Marvel projects so I was so excited to have Wanda as a main character again. Billy and Tommy (Wanda and Vision’s children) were also in this film and played a huge part which I also greatly appreciated. One thing I can complain about on the topic of Wandavision; where in the multiverse of Vision? I grew an attachment to Vision during Wandavision and I missed him so much. I wish they would have had him in one of the multiverses or at least mentioned him more. For goodness sake, he is the father figure to Billy and Tommy and we’re only going to mention him once? Ok, whatever. Justice for Vision.

This movie was terrifying. This was the scariest Marvel movie I had ever seen. It was extremely graphic and depressing. There was lots of gore and Wanda ended up being terrifying and killing way too many people while almost killing one of the new MCU characters, America Chavez. America is honestly such a great addition to the MCU. We really needed a new female power figure especially after Wanda became this horrifying character. I think America will be very prominent in the MCU over the next few years.

Overall, this movie was meh. I’m not sure if I will see it again in the theater honestly. It was very rushed and became super hard to follow at times. If you’re not a huge Marvel fan, I would not recommend watching this movie. There are many things that will be hard to pick up on and you will also just have no idea what is going on with how fast paced it is. I recommend watching the first Dr. Strange film, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and the What If? series. It was not horrible, but not great either. I just do not think it lived up to its expectations.