Doctor Strange and Doubting Your Worldview

Here’s a question for everyone. Do you really believe what you believe? I mean in some way you absolutely do. But how can you truly believe something if you’ve never looked around at the other options? How can you believe something fully if you’ve never doubted that belief? These are the questions that I’m hoping to unpack. And they are also questions Doctor Strange tries to answer.

Doctor Strange is a movie about doubting what you know. When we look at the world there is so many contrasting and conflicting worldviews that exist in it. Even just within the Christian religion there are numerous denominations including: Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, Latter Day Saints, Jehovahs Witnesses, and so on and so forth. There are so many diverse and unique ways of looking at the world, so how can we know which one is truly correct? The answer, I believe, is to doubt everything.

Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) begins this movie so sure of everything in his world. He’s arguably the most arrogant character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and that universe includes Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.). So, when he is forced to change is worldview his arrogance causes him to struggle to adapt to the changes. People don’t often look for enlightenment when they are content with their lives. They look for it when they are struggling or miserable or searching for answers. Doctor Strange starts as a man who is completely content with his life, and when that life is forcibly taken away from him, he spends a period in serious grief before learning what he truly believes and how he wants to see the world.

The journey leads Strange to seek a way back to his normal life. When he hears of a mysterious cure to his nerve damaged hands he goes after it which leads him to Kamar-Taj. There he meets Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who says the thesis of this whole movie as he helps guide strange: “Forget everything you think you know.” I find this phrase incredibly insightful. We grow up so confident we know more than we do. We look at the world through a predetermined lens. Whether by our parents, or friends, education, etc. We have biases that determine the way we live our lives. And it is only by someone challenging those biases that we can hope to change. Because we don’t know everything. In the grand scope of knowledge, we actually know very little. So, when someone introduces new information, we struggle to grasp it. Strange himself struggles to accept the teachings of The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) until he sees the truth she exposes to him. We need people like that in our lives, to challenge our way of thinking. Only through challenge can we truly come to understand the world.

And how we react to challenges is dependent on how strongly we believe what we believe. Those who have never doubted their existence, like Strange, are forced to either stubbornly defy new truth, or let go of their preconceived ideas and embrace the new view of the world. This is present in both Strange and Mordo when Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) tells them that The Ancient One is using energy from the Dark Dimension to stay alive, the pair both react in very different ways. Strange cautiously accepts this new reality and works to learn more before he makes his final judgement. Mordo loses his faith and abandons the world he’s worked in. We do the same, new information changes our worldview, one way or another.

So now that our worldview has been challenged, what do we do? We listen. We learn. We spend hours in study and practice trying to understand the other side. And once we’ve done that we come to a new place. And perhaps that is a place where we still understand and live in a very similar world as we started. But we can’t know that is the correct world for us without truly looking to other worlds and knowing how our view fits into the larger puzzle. Once we see the whole picture, we can actually know what we believe and not live within the confines of our box. So, we come out of our doubts stronger whether the worldview changes or stays the same. I spent a few years doubting everything I knew and by the end it actually affirmed most of what I already believed and made those beliefs stronger. So question what you know. Doubt everything before you accept it. And listen and learn when people are telling you new information in an excepting way not in one of fear. It will change you for the better.

Just a quick refresher of my MCU ranking criteria.

Cast and Performances
Story and Plot
Best Fight/Action Scene
Rewatchability
Cleverness of the Stan Lee cameo

Each film will be judged solely by me and then placed against all the other films. And rated on a scale of 10 with a total possible score of 50.

So, here is the quick breakdown of Doctor Strange

Cast and Performances: The charisma of Cumberbatch alone is remarkable. His work as the titular Doctor Strange is one of the best performances in the entire MCU.  But he’s honestly the only character I remember when all is said and done. Benedict Wong would probably be the best supporting character as the stoic Wong but even he doesn’t get a lot of time to shine. Ejiofor, Swinton, Mikkelsen, and Rachel McAdams, a strong group of actors, are virtually not fully utilized with forgettable roles and somewhat lacking character arcs. (6/10)

Story and Plot: The plot is simple enough but It’s also forgettable. I find it hard to remember or reiterate even after multiple rewatches. (5/10)

Best Fight/Action Scene: The New York fight is a visual masterpiece. It’s beautifully designed, smartly choreographed and is easily a highlight of the movie. (8/10)

Rewatchability: Doctor Strange lacks rewatchability compared to similar movies like Iron Man and Ant-Man but it makes up for its overly serious tone and complex story with a strong lead performance and stunning visuals. (7/10)

Cleverness of the Stan Lee Cameo: Stan the Man is a passenger on a city bus during the New York fight. It’s not too clever and I honestly forgot it was coming until it happened. (2/10)

Total: 28/50

Current Ranking:
The Avengers
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Guardians of the Galaxy
Captain America: The First Avenger
Iron Man
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Captain America: Civil War
Ant-Man
Thor
Iron Man 3
The Incredible Hulk
Doctor Strange
Thor: The Dark World
Iron Man 2