'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' aka 'Stephen Took Too Much LSD'

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by welding the pieces together with lacquer containing powdered gold, creating beautiful artwork from what were simple plates and bowls. In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Stephen Strange (Bandersnatch Canteloupe) attempted something similar with the multiverse after he accidentally smashed it on behalf of Peter Parker. Only he used Scotch tape instead of gold glue and as any panicked child will tell you, that stuff doesn’t hold. Take a look.

There’s a lot going on there, so let’s take it in order. The cracks in the multiverse are giving Stephen prophetic dreams about everything going wrong. It looks like Christine (Rachel McAdams) is either getting married or had the poor taste to wear white to someone else’s wedding. Kamar-Taj is under attack and its inhabitants (including a green minotaur) are defending it. Strange is arrested by Mordu (Chiwetel Ejifor) and Ultron androids and brought before a council that’s almost certainly the MCU’s version of the Illuminati, given the presence of Patrick Stewart. The members of this group, the most physically and psychically powerful beings on earth, guide events from the shadows and include (in the comics) Namor, Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Black Bolt (of the Inhumans), Charles Xavier, and Doctor Strange himself. It needs to be said they are all terrible at the job, but their overwhelming arrogance deludes them into thinking they’re doing the right thing. Black Panther was also invited, but T’Challa reminded them secret government plots are a terrible idea, and noped out before you can say “Tuskegee Syphilis Study.”

There are dinosaurs, a finely diced Strange, a sinister Strange, a Beholder Shuma-Gorath, and a Scarlet Witch who feels unfairly treated for that time she was a terrorist and also that other time when she physically and psychologically tortured an entire town every second for 9 straight days rather than talk to a grief counselor. It’s so hard to discuss one’s feelings. We get a brief glimpse of the fantastic America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), dimension-hopping teen superhero. And then it’s all magic powers and evil spirits.

This is director Sam Raimi’s first venture into the MCU proper after his Tobey Maguire Spider-Man series helped make superheroes cool. Here’s hoping his horror influences are on full display and maybe grime the Marvel Cinematic Universe up a bit. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness premieres exclusively in theaters on May 6. Be there or be square chunks of meat floating through space.