--- title: "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" year: 2022 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness" fi1m_score: 60 critics_score: 64 critics_reviews: 26 published: "2026-09-19T12:27:54.733501+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T12:28:08.095494+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) Directed by Sam Raimi · 2h 06m · MPA PG-13 · Fantasy, Action, Adventure **Fi1m score: 60** · Critics 64 from 26 reviews *In a sentence:* Sam Raimi is let out to play for about twenty minutes, and we can tell exactly which twenty > Sam Raimi gets a Marvel film to himself and, for stretches, we can tell: the corpses, the crash zooms, the eyeball. The rest is a franchise delivering messages to itself, and Elizabeth Olsen is the only one in a story. ## Synopsis New York, the present. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) dreams of another version of himself dying to protect a girl, then wakes and goes to the wedding of Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams), the surgeon he did not marry. Outside the church a one-eyed octopus is dragging that girl down the street. She is America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), who can open doors between universes but cannot choose when, and something is hunting her for it. Strange and Wong (Benedict Wong) take her to Kamar-Taj, and Strange goes for help to Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), living in an orchard. Wanda has been reading the Darkhold, a book of dark spells, and wants America’s power to reach a universe where her sons Billy and Tommy (Julian Hilliard and Jett Klyne) are alive. ## Review Sam Raimi has been handed a Marvel film with obligations attached, and *Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness* is the result: a studio product with a director’s fingerprints on about a third of it. The third is good. Corpses walk, an eyeball is skewered, the camera lunges at faces the way it did in [*Evil Dead II*](https://film.one/film/evil-dead-ii). The other two thirds are Michael Waldron’s script explaining who America Chavez is, what the Darkhold does and why a witch living quietly in an orchard is now a problem for every universe at once. It is a decent evening if this is your sort of thing. A one-eyed octopus drags itself down a Manhattan street, and what happens to its eye is the first proper laugh. John Mathieson shoots daytime New York flat and bright, so the monster looks wrong in it, and keeps his shadows for the orchard, where the apples are too red and the light too kind. Charles Wood’s best work is the fall through the universes, a world of paint and a world built from blocks, each held on screen for about a second and a half. It is the only sequence in which the multiverse is fun to look at. Elizabeth Olsen is the reason to see it. Her Wanda Maximoff arrives already broken, barefoot among the apple trees, and Olsen plays the grief as reasonable: she wants her children, she has found a universe where they exist, and one girl stands between her and them. She does not raise her voice until she has to, and when she does the film stops being funny. Graham Churchyard puts her in a red crown and a red coat and lets the face do the rest. The film assumes we have watched *WandaVision*; anyone who has not will find the orchard scene a puzzle. The trouble is that Strange himself is not in a story. Waldron gives him one question, whether he is happy, and asks it at a wedding, in a dream and over a drink on a rooftop, and Cumberbatch answers it the same way each time, with the eyebrow. He is nimble and times a line well, but the man who ends the film is the man who began it, dustier. Xochitl Gomez has charm and about four lines of character; America can punch a hole between universes and cannot steer, and that is all we are told. Rachel McAdams and Benedict Wong get the best small laughs and not much else. We flinched twice. Once at a reflection that moves when the person in front of it does not, once at a sound Raimi holds a beat longer than this studio usually allows. Around the ninety-minute mark we caught ourselves waiting for an explanation to finish so the film could start again, annoyed that a picture with a walking corpse in it had made us feel we were in a meeting. That is the film: Raimi for a scene, then paperwork for two. There is a stretch in the middle with a roomful of familiar faces we will not list; it is there so the audience can point at the screen, though Raimi treats the visitors more rudely than Marvel normally permits, and the rudeness is the best thing in it. Danny Elfman’s score is brass and thunder and could belong to any of the last dozen of these, until a late duel fought with notes pulled off a stave, when for two minutes music and picture are the same idea. Bob Murawski and Tia Nolan cut the fights cleanly, so we always know where Wanda is and how far the door is. Against Raimi’s own films this is the fenced-in one. *Spider-Man 2* (2004) also had a hero who did not want the job, and it made his doubt the whole film rather than a running gag. Here he is let in when a body needs to be made funny or a face needs lunging at, and asked to wait outside while the plot is read aloud. See it if Olsen’s Wanda means something to you, or if you want to know what Raimi can do inside a fence. Watch it at home, where the explanations can be paused and the two or three real shocks still land. It runs 126 minutes and carries a 12 certificate, which, given the number of corpses, is generous. *Fi1m score 60, published 19 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (26) - **Slant Magazine**, Jake Cole (4/4): This psychedelic, horror-strewn romp is the MCU’s new high-water mark, seizing the multiverse material with giddy exuberance missing since Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. No MCU movie has so thoroughly displayed the personality and artistry of its director. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-review/) - **IndieWire**, David Ehrlich (B+): Sam Raimi delivers a violent, wacky funhouse of a film that nudges the MCU somewhere actually new. It is a drag-me-to-several-different-hells-at-once ride that saves the franchise from itself. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-review-1234721308/) - **Empire**, Dan Jolin (4/5): Raimi returns with a noisy, frantic, and entertaining ride full of jump scares, inventive set pieces, fan-pleasing cameos, and a high body count that lives up to its title. Strong performances from Cumberbatch and Olsen anchor the MCU’s most deranged and energetic entry yet. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Justin Chang (80/100, inferred): Raimi's return brings playful, ghoulish and exuberantly grotesque energy with freaky horror flourishes. The film delivers an enjoyable, scarier Marvel sequel full of witchy doings and evil twins. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-05-03/doctor-strange-2-review-multiverse-of-madness-marvel) - **Radio Times**, Jeremy Aspinall (4/5): The film offers exhilarating action, jaw-dropping cameos and Raimi’s signature macabre visuals in a psychedelic multiverse adventure. It requires prior knowledge of WandaVision and can feel overloaded by future plot threads, though the post-credits scene delivers a strong payoff. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-wuuwvq/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness/) - **The i Paper**, Christina Newland (75/100, inferred): Cumberbatch’s smug, likable sorcerer anchors a kaleidoscopic adventure through alternate realities filled with inventive magical action sequences. Raimi brings welcome chaos and dark-witchcraft energy, though it occasionally veers into goofiness and excessive lore. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-review-benedict-cumberbatch-marvel-plot-reviews-cast-1607930) - **Financial Times**, Danny Leigh (★★★☆☆): Raimi is allowed a creative signature, delivering a family-friendly take on horror chills close to his earlier work. Cumberbatch’s spry performance holds the movie together amid the dead weight of assumed knowledge. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/cc4f107e-6b6d-4467-95b4-171b601e4ba3) - **Screen Daily** (70/100, inferred): Raimi’s fingerprints make this the funkiest and most peculiar MCU entry, blending horror, B-movie schlock and irreverence with spectacle. The critic highlights the pulpy intensity, darker violence and Olsen’s complex portrayal of Wanda, which sells an unexpectedly touching ending. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-review/5170025.article) - **Sight and Sound**, Kim Newman (70/100, inferred): Raimi brings an Evil Dead spirit and inventive multiverse visuals to the MCU, creating a spectacular if occasionally chaotic trip. The critic singles out Elizabeth Olsen’s raw emotional performance as Wanda for elevating the film’s themes of responsibility and regret. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/doctor-strange-multiverse-madness-inventive-trip-through-marvel-universe) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the multiverse concept handled with cheerful humour and boisterous surreal melodrama rather than stoner seriousness. Raimi brings a lite-scary action aesthetic to the sequel, with entertaining scenes of the characters whizzing through varied realities. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/may/03/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-review-benedict-cumberbatch-alt-reality) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, John DeFore (70/100, inferred): The film is a little more ordinary than its director/material match promises but enough fun to wish for more Raimi-style exploits in the MCU. The last act plays to the director's strengths with a looser, more kinetic and occasionally goofy tone despite the stakes. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-benedict-cumberbatch-1235139596/) - **Total Film** (3/5): There are enough crowd-pleasing moments, Raimi flourishes, and callbacks to reward the faithful, with Cumberbatch remaining enjoyable. The film rarely feels like the best possible outcome of this director-character pairing, hampered by weightless CGI and underserved strands. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-review/) - **Variety**, Owen Gleiberman (60/100, inferred): The head-trip sequel is an unhinged CGI horror jam and Marvel brainteaser that is both entertaining and exhausting. Alternate versions and multiplying storylines sand down character appeal without locating an emotional core. [Read](https://variety.com/2022/film/reviews/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-review-benedict-cumberbatch-elizabeth-olsen-sam-raimi-1235256083/) - **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (50/100, inferred): The critic finds the film mostly ordinary Marvel fare with fan-service surprises rather than genuine wonder. Sam Raimi injects occasional horror elements into the mystic mumbo-jumbo. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/04/movies/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-review.html) - **The Independent**, Clarisse Loughrey (2/5): The film is a total mess overloaded with exposition, lore, and MacGuffins that undercuts its multiverse premise, reducing it to cameos and fan service. Raimi’s horror and comic-book flourishes are present but feel tacked on to a structurally and emotionally hollow MCU product. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/doctor-strange-2-multiverse-of-madness-release-review-b2072036.html) - **The New Yorker**, Richard Brody (30/100, inferred): The sequel trims away whimsy to fit the Marvel franchise formula, resulting in a conservative and corporate slog. Raimi's horror touches are used superficially amid facile destruction scenes. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-is-a-formulaic-corporate-slog) - **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★☆☆☆): The film is seen as another water-treading exercise from Marvel that reveals how difficult it has been for the franchise to regroup after Endgame. It borrows multiverse themes and cameos from recent entries but lacks feelgood pizzazz. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-review-jrzjtjsxk) - **Vulture** (30/100, inferred): Marvel has hemmed in Raimi's craft, resulting in a disappointing film that is gamified and leeched of color. The story is held together with bubblegum and a prayer, and the sexist conception of Wanda leaves the critic more disenchanted than ever. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2022/05/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-movie-review.html) - **Deadline**, Pete Hammond (80/100, inferred): The critic praises Sam Raimi's horror-infused take on the MCU film, noting it mixes dark storytelling with beloved characters effectively. They single out Elizabeth Olsen's commanding performance as the Scarlet Witch for particular praise. [Read](https://deadline.com/2022/05/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-review-benedict-cumberbatch-works-his-magic-in-sam-raimis-marvel-of-horror-1235015025/) - **Den of Geek**, Don Kaye (4/5): The critic praises it as a wild, weird, and ambitious MCU entry with Sam Raimi's horror style, highlighting Elizabeth Olsen's performance as Wanda. It notes some shaggy elements but overall a rich, off-the-wall film. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-review/) - **NME**, Paul Bradshaw (80/100, inferred): It's a head-spinning, high-energy adventure that's fun, scary, visually bombastic and mad, with Raimi bringing cartoon charm, though stakes feel low and it can be numbing. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-review-marvel-3217645) - **/Film**, Hoai-Tran Bui (7.5/10): The critic finds the film a horror-tinged but somewhat muted Sam Raimi Marvel movie that delivers gory and macabre moments along with a fun ride despite its bridge-building purpose. Raimi's influence shows in the brutality and visuals, though it doesn't fully reach the promised madness. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/850790/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-review-a-sam-raimi-marvel/) - **Polygon**, Susana Polo (65/100, inferred): The critic highlights Raimi's inventive visuals and body-horror elements as the standout features while criticizing the film's failure to meaningfully develop Doctor Strange's character beyond his established flaws. [Read](https://www.polygon.com/reviews/23054675/doctor-strange-2-review-multiverse-madness-spoiler-free-mcu/) - **Collider**, Ross Bonaime (C+): The critic praises Raimi's distinctive horror-infused direction and visual style as the film's strongest elements but faults its overreliance on hollow MCU fan service and multiverse gimmicks that undermine narrative coherence. [Read](https://collider.com/doctor-strange-2-review-spoiler-free/) - **The Wrap**, Alonso Duralde (50/100, inferred): The review finds the film heavy on spectacle but light on humanity and character depth, though it praises Raimi's visual flair and some trippy sequences. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-film-review-sequel-mcu-benedict-cumberbatch/) - **Paste**, Brianna Zigler (35/100, inferred): The critic notes occasional flashes of Raimi's signature style amid the MCU formula but finds the film incoherent, overly dependent on prior series, and ultimately disappointing due to weak character motivations and excessive cameos. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/marvel/sam-raimi-mcu-doctor-strange-multiverse-of-madness) ## Details - **Director:** Sam Raimi - **Director:** Sam Raimi - **Writer:** Michael Waldron - **Cinematography:** John Mathieson - **Editor:** Tia Nolan, Bob Murawski - **Music:** Danny Elfman - **Production design:** Charles Wood - **Costume design:** Graham Churchyard - **Producer:** Kevin Feige - **Cast:** Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Stephen Strange; Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez; Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / The Scarlet Witch; Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo; Benedict Wong as Wong; Rachel McAdams as Dr. Christine Palmer; Jett Klyne as Tommy Maximoff; Julian Hilliard as Billy Maximoff - **Runtime:** 2h 06m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 6 May 2022 - **Genres:** Fantasy, Action, Adventure - **Budget:** $295 million - **Box office:** $956 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf8LAYJSOL8 ## Where to watch in the US - Disney+: streaming, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, uhd - Apple TV: rent $4.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $19.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $19.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-19.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IL, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Drag Me to Hell* (2009): Raimi with nobody holding his coat: one curse, one victim and nothing to set up for later. - *Spider-Man 2* (2004): The same director making a hero’s doubt the whole film rather than a running gag. - *Everything Everywhere All at Once* (2022): The multiverse used to say something about a family, with hot dogs for fingers. - *Suspiria* (1977): Witches, primary colours and a score louder than the screaming; Argento at full tilt. - *The Devil Rides Out* (1968): Hammer’s best-mannered occult thriller, with Christopher Lee on the right side for once. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness