192 replies to this topic

[Ogul]

The trouble with Doctor Strange is that he's not actually a Doctor.
So either you have a character who's a dedicated surgeon who discovers
magic and think 'fuck sick people, I can visit the astral plane!' or you
get a magician who performs magic tricks during surgery and the Marvel
movie is a 2 hour episode of ER. Both are terrible characters.

 

He is a doctor, he has a PHD, he's just a surgeon, and his hands don't work well enough to perform surgery anymore. His journey is that he starts out as an entitled douche, then loses the tools that he needed to maintain that lifestyle, so he goes on a bit of a journey and becomes a better person. Fundamentally it's not that different from Iron Man's journey, and that movie did just fine. Eventually he takes on the role of not saving a life or two per day on the surgery table, but saving everyone's lives in defending them from existential threats from beyond.

 

I would set the plot so that act I shows him as a broken man, a little like House at his worst, then flash back to before the accident when he was a total douche, boozing and treating people badly, but too rich and successful to care. Then the accident and cut back to the present. Montage of him visiting every possible doctor, including the crazy and imaginary kind, but none can bring him back up to where he needs to be. After any number of failures, he seeks out a Himalayan mystic, but passes out in the snow. He wakes in the Ancient One's temple, who puts him to work cleaning the place. As he works for him, Strange finds that his labors are flexing out his hands and making them more functional, and at the same time he's picking up a few magic tricks, including how the master uses his various tools like the Eye and Cloak.

 

After years in his service, Strange feels that his hands are back to the level they once were, and seeks to leave. He tampers with a device that he believes will allow him to travel back to New York, but instead it releases some deadly force into the temple, Dormammu or something. This villain throws him aside and engaged the Ancient One in an epic battle, eventually killing him. With his last strength, the Ancient One sends Strange back to New York, along with his cloak and Eye. After using the Eye, Strange finds that even New York is full of all sorts of magical weirdness that normal humans can't see. The villain follows him for the loot, and Strange has to learn to use the few tricks he's explicitly picked up, along with the new tools he's got, to figure out a way to trick the villain into a trap of some kind, sending him back outside the universe.

 

With the villain dispatched, Strange now has the choice to go back to his old lifestyle with his now repaired hands, or to take the legacy he's inherited and maintain the mystical balance. No sooner does he make the choice to take on the role of protector, donning the cloak and eye, than he receives a knock on his door, Wong on the other side with a giant bundle of tomes on his back. "Finally, you still have a lot to learn. . ." as he brushes past Strange into his home. Pull back to show that the house is the famous Greenwich brownstone, fade to black.

[Adam Balson]

The trouble with Doctor Strange is that he's not actually a Doctor. So either you have a character who's a dedicated surgeon who discovers magic and think 'fuck sick people, I can visit the astral plane!' or you get a magician who performs magic tricks during surgery and the Marvel movie is a 2 hour episode of ER. Both are terrible characters.

 

I wish they'd picked Black Panther instead. Easy to make a good movie out of that character. I can't think of Dr Strange type of movie that's ever worked in the past. Even if they go with Heroes Journey, like they've done with every other Marvel character, Strange isn't really overcoming anything other than my hands done broke. No dead parents, no fathers legacy, no world war. He got in a car accident and then went all Karate Kid. That's a self obsessed prick of a character.

 

I wouldn't say that, he's unable to do the thing he enjoyed and excelled at most. It'd be like Usain Bolt having his legs broken or Picasso losing the use of his hands. It's still devastating.
It is selfish that he wanted his hands fixed but he learnt not to be. He's still a little arrogant now and again, sure, but he doesn't get a lot of thanks in his job. A lot of the time he solves problems and saves people from things they don't know are happening or even know exist in the first place. 
And I think they should ramp up the medicine aspect. he could still advise even if he can;t do the surgery himself. And they should play on the fact he's a doctor now doing the complete opposite. In a way, he's using alternative medicine and meditation it just happens to be backed up with results now.

But I agree, Black Panther is more interesting and easier to put on screen.

[Jim Ohara]

The point is that Dr Strange (the comic character) never bothers to help the sick. He doesn't mend bones, cure cancer or heal diseases. He moves completely away from the healthcare side of things and instead shuts himself up in his loft until there's an attack. Marvel created a Doctor character who's not a Doctor. May as well have given him a PhD.

 

And if Marvel make a rule that his magic can't fix diseases then their first magical character can't even do the same as an asprin. His tragic origin is nothing compared to most characters (the template for almost all Heroes journey types).

[Ogul]

                   

The point is that Dr Strange (the comic character) never bothers
to help the sick. He doesn't mend bones, cure cancer or heal diseases.
He moves completely away from the healthcare side of things and instead
shuts himself up in his loft until there's an attack. Marvel created a
Doctor character who's not a Doctor. May as well have given him a PhD.

 

He moves away from medicine because he has higher priorities. He doesn't have time to do medicine anymore. It's not like he's using his magic to pick up chicks or make money, he uses it to put his own life at risk to defend the planet, it's a noble occupational choice.

[Don Lerch]

or they could do something like Warehouse 13. He could use his magic to heal people but only at a cost. One season of Warehouse 13 had a long running plot about someone who used an artifact to heal another and the other turned into their version of a super villain. People who are meant to be sick have to be sick or face consequences.

[Will Carper]

Black Panther is kinda something Marvel NEEDS to do at this point. They've got Widow, Fury, War Machine, and Heimdall and that's it for diversity. And they're all supporting players. Give the world a black king with better technology than Tony Stark.

 

But I'm not opposed to a Dr. Strange movie. I think there's a way to reconcile his medical and arcane responsibilities. BKV did it well in The Oath.

[Chris D]

According to Bryan Singer on Twitter, Ellen Page, Anna Paquin and Shawn Ashmore are all going to be in X-Men: DoFP.

 

Nice.  I didn't think Ellen Page would end up being in it.  And I thought Paquin might be too busy with True Blood, but I guess it shouldn't be too hard to make a little cameo.

 

 

Black Panther is kinda something Marvel NEEDS to do at this point. They've
got Widow, Fury, War Machine, and Heimdall and that's it for diversity.
And they're all supporting players. Give the world a black king with
better technology than Tony Stark.

 

 

Falcon is set to be in the next Captain America movie too.  I think Black Panther is a tough sell.  I'd rather see a Heroes for Hire movie with Luke Cage.

Edited by Chris D, 27 January 2013 - 01:54 AM.

[Paul F]

In equally good news, it looks like January Jones won't be back: http://collider.com/...ry-jones/#125sf

[Will Carper]

It'd be awesome if Rogue filled the Kitty role, as she was our POV character in Singer's first film and is better fleshed out than Page's Kitty.
 
I just really like the movies' Rogue.

EDIT: Chris, I love Cage and Heroes for Hire would be awesome. But I think Marvel kind of has a responsibility to NOT make their first black superhero movie about an ex-con. Give audiences someone on the level of Thor and Iron Man and Cap, prestige-wise. Really, T'Challa has so much potential to be even more badass than them. As a major kids' franchise I think they've got a responsibility to really pick and choose the right characters to introduce, and when to introduce them. Cage after BP? Fine. But BP, pulled off well, would create a character on the level of Marvel's Big 3 just by the nature of who he is. Thor wasn't a great movie but they were true to his character, and that character is one people eat up. I think the same would be true of T'Challa. He's like Django but mega-rich, (more) regal, and a ninja.

Edited by Will Carper, 27 January 2013 - 02:05 AM.

[Jim Ohara]

Falcon is set to be in the next Captain America movie too.  I think Black Panther is a tough sell.  I'd rather see a Heroes for Hire movie with Luke Cage.

 

I don't think it's that tough to sell Black Panther. There's lots of black guys who've led action movies. I think Black Panther would be an amazing movie for Africa and might inspire the continent in the same way Braveheart did for Scotland, or do for tourism what Lord of the Rings did for New Zealand. 

[Chris D]

I don't think it's that tough to sell Black Panther. There's lots of black guys who've led action movies. I think Black Panther would be an amazing movie for Africa and might inspire the continent in the same way Braveheart did for Scotland, or do for tourism what Lord of the Rings did for New Zealand. 

 

I just think that a movie about a king of a super advanced African nation is a tough sell.  I think they'd have to introduce the character in Iron Man or Avengers first.

[Will Carper]

Audiences would accept Wakanda because the characters would accept it. It'd be no different than Asgard and Marvel's NYC coexisting.

[Martin Smith]

BKV and Marcos Martin's The Oath mini also redesigned Strange's costume nicely in a way that would translate well to film.

[Christian U]

Audiences would accept Wakanda because the characters would accept it. It'd be no different than Asgard and Marvel's NYC coexisting.

 

 

In the deictic world of the movie, Wakanda would be no problem, suspension-of-disbelief-wise, but it might be hard to find that audience. I think Chris may be right that it'd be a good idea to introduce the character first in another movie.

[Will Carper]

In the deictic world of the movie, Wakanda would be no problem, suspension-of-disbelief-wise, but it might be hard to find that audience. I think Chris may be right that it'd be a good idea to introduce the character first in another movie.

 

It'd be the safer way to introduce the character, I think... but the same is also true for Ant-Man and Strange. Black Panther seems way cooler than either of them would be to general audiences.

[Steve Sensible]

It'd be the safer way to introduce the character, I think... but the same is also true for Ant-Man and Strange. Black Panther seems way cooler than either of them would be to general audiences.

 

I'd be surprised if we don't get an Ant-man cameo in one of the movies that precedes it - most likely in Avengers 2. It'll be nearly completed by then after all, if it's due in November 2015.

[steveuk]

As we've all discussed before, Marvel's movie division is only making films of characters they believe support a film, whatever their success (or lack of it, in print).

 

So if you think any character, be it Black Panther, Doctor Strange or Squirrel Girl, could carry a film; what's the pitch? What makes them movie material?

[Christian U]

I thought Jonny Depp was a great choice for Strange, by the way, if you're going for the trippy fun style that works so well for Dr. Strange in books like the Vaughan one.

[Dave Wallace]

For me, a lot of the appeal is going to be in seeing how the weird magical realms of Doctor Strange are realised on screen. Rather than trying to dial him down, I think they should go for all-out Ditko-esque psychedelic craziness. There'd be nothing else like it in the Marvel movieverse.

[Steve Sensible]

I like the idea of a Doctor Strange movie precisely because it's potentially so different from what Marvel's done before. They're gradually expanding the possibilities that the Marvel Studios Universe has to offer, going from quite grounded movies like Iron Man, to gradually including more cosmic elements in Thor and Avengers. With GotG they'll be going even more cosmic, and if you can make weird alien raccoons work, then something like Doctor Strange is far less of a stretch.

 

For me, a lot of the appeal is going to be in seeing how the weird magical realms of Doctor Strange are realised on screen. Rather than trying to dial him down, I think they should go for all-out Ditko-esque psychedelic craziness. There'd be nothing else like it in the Marvel movieverse.

 

That's what I'd like to see. Trying to translate his abstract mystical realms onto the screen poses a real challenge, but if done well it could be very cool.

 

One of the many disappointing things about the Fantastic Four movies was that Reed's lab was so conventional. I'd have loved to see them try to realise some of the Kirby aesthetic on-screen, but they didn't even try.