Just a fair warning, I will be talking about Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and there will be spoilers. I'm going to hit enter a few times so no spoilers accidentally make it into a preview in the link I'm going to post to social media.
That should be adequate.
So in this new film, I identify a lot with Dr. Strange. Because I've been where he is, and I know things about myself that are unsettling. The big question of the film is, "Are you happy?" When Strange is on the receiving end of the question, he lies like each and every single one of us would and says he is. It's like the question, "How are you?" No one ever wants to know the real answer to that question. It's just a polite greeting.
Am I happy? Not just no, but fuck no. There is so much more I want out of life, and I'm not the only one reading this who thinks that. We all want more out of life. It's human nature.
But then Strange is accused of always needing the "knife in his hands." He was a surgeon before he was a superhero, so it's not that st--odd that he would want that. But that's a sign of a control freak, and I most certainly am a control freak. Who could blame me? All my life, things have been out of my control. If there was something--anything--I could have some autonomy over, I would fucking cling to that. To insane lengths, if I'm being honest. It's something I'm working on.
But that's the thing. I feel so powerless in my surroundings. If I can exert control, I feel the need to do so. Not at anyone else's expense. To quote a great man, "I'm a bastard, but I'm not a fucking bastard." But if I can control something, I will do my best to do so.
And then there's the beginning of a movie. It's obvious that the Strange we see in action here is not our Strange but an alternate version. And when he decides to sacrifice America Chavez's life for the greater good, it's kind of horrifying. I do believe in the greater good, but there's no fucking way I could live with myself if I did something like that. And you know right off the bat that our Strange is going to have to make a decision later in the movie like this, and we all hope he will do the right thing and not do what the other Strange did.
Because I know what I'm capable of. I've done some pretty bad things over the course of my life, always with some kind of bullshit justification. And I know I can be exceptionally cruel. I always know the right thing to say to someone to hurt them the worst. I can identify those buttons, and I've been known to push them with great vehemence. I'm not proud of that. I haven't done that in a long time, and I hope to never do that again. I know I'm a better person than I was, and I'm always striving for excellence. But at the same time I know the horrible shit I'm capable of.
And yes, I'm an arrogant asshole. I try not to be, but this is #485 of these columns. Who else but an arrogant asshole would have dragged this series out as long as I have? How many times have I made crazy shit about me? To clarify, I JUST MADE DR. STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS ABOUT ME. YOU'RE READING ABOUT ME DOING THIS RIGHT NOW. I'm convinced that I'm always right. I can't tell you how many arguments I've gotten into that turned into shouting matches because I'm so convinced that I'm right. And even if I discover I'm wrong, I still stick to my irrational guns. I'm working on that, too. I've made a good deal of progress, I think. I haven't had one of those shouting matches in a while. I think cannabis has had a healthy hand in making me more humble.
Hell, just saying that means I'm still arrogant as fuck. Never believe someone who claims to be humble. They're so full of shit you can smell it on their breath.
But I'm not hopeless. At least I think about these things. Most arrogant assholes just accept they're awesome. They would probably sing along to this song without even a whiff of irony.
And then the Scarlet Witch (not Wanda, by the way) asks Strange if he found out there was an alternate universe where he was happy, wouldn't he want to go there? And you can see it in his eyes. Hell, who wouldn't want to do something like that? If I was happy in another world, I would absolutely want to go there.
But I wouldn't actually do it. Because doing so means I would have to get the other me out of the picture. Probably by killing him. And I just don't have that in me. The thought that she would want something like that actually horrified me. I'm glad Strange brings that up to her because I was thinking the exact same thing which made me realize that no, in the end he wasn't going to make the same mistake the other him did when he tried to sacrifice Chavez for the greater good.
Yet there is that moment when even Wong says that Strange has to sacrifice her, since it's the only way they could defeat the Scarlet Witch. And as Strange approaches her, Chavez asks him if that's what he's going to do. And she says it's OK. She gets it now. For a brief moment I was afraid he was actually going to do it. I thought he was going to say, "I'm not going to take it. I'm asking for it." And if she said yes, he really would do it. I don't think I could have liked Strange if he did that.
But like the true superhero he is, he found another way.
The film also touches upon another subject near and dear to my heart. The villain redemption. I'm going to talk about that in another one of these columns, so I won't go too deeply into it. But when we learn that it's no longer Wanda at the helm, that it's the Scarlet Witch instead, I wondered if she could come back from the evil she was committing. I didn't want to think she couldn't, but it was a legitimate concern for me. Villains with good reasons for doing horrible things are my fictional jam. But I always want to see them redeemed. And I was so glad she realized the error of her ways, sacrificing herself for the greater good. She tried to go to that other universe where she was happy, and she tried to take that away from her other self. Which is wrong on so many levels. But she realized it just in time to stop herself.
I hope if I'm ever in such a situation, I can do the same. Hopefully not at the last second, like she did, but you know.
IT'S OVER!
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