I apologise if this sounds like a cheap plug, it’s really not: you’re probably going want to head in for a second round, perhaps picking IMAX more wisely.

Go watch it! It’s everything you expect from MCU and yet it’s different. I just can’t wait to see Doctor Strange’s banter with Tony Stark in Avengers Infinity War, oh that would be EPIC. Also do wait till end credits. An Avenger might surprise you. Just Saying!

Marvel is yet again expanding our horizons into expecting different kinds of heroes and threats to our world. Watch as they insert minor foreshadows of the future of the series, as everything comes together in the Infinity War. Watch this because Marvel delivers yet another gem. Watch it for Stan Lee’s hilarious cameo, and please do not leave before watching the mid-credits and post-credits scenes.

The two brief end-credits teasers give us a taste of things to come. And, overall, Doctor Strange will appeal only to Marvel fans, for others it would be a rather outlandish entertainment.

The real and only hero of Dr Strange is its visual effects. What happens to large cities and vast tracts of land in the film is what you see when you look into a kaleidoscope. Buildings, roads and bridges fold upon each other while the heroes and villains do parkour between all of that. It is great to look at till a point. But then, you have seen stranger things before.

It’s unmissable, for sure. It has the style, the spectacle, a story with little to no twists, a penchant for gags and jokes we’ve now come to expect from the MCU and more. And its Cumberbatch-ness is definitely a big draw. And the fact that it knows its flaws and doesn’t dwell on it. That you’re going to love this one is an understatement.

‘Doctor Strange’ is a subverted superhero film with plenty to look and laugh at.

Scott Derrickson’s work is fascinating and bewildering. His treatment of the story and understanding of the space-time continuum is beyond what I have experienced, and it makes me shiver at the possibilities of what could be done with this understanding. Doctor Strange also has a lot of detail in its storytelling and iconography.

Everything is forgotten in the brilliant Inception-like reimagining of cities, streets and buildings that the film deploys, as The Ancient One and her pupils battle out Kaecilius and his lynchpins in different dimensions.

If only the care that was put into the staggering, MC Escher-esque visuals from the final act were put into the characters. If only the fantastic special effects and a strong central performance from Cumberbatch were put in service of a more cohesive script. Maybe then Doctor Strange could’ve been the trippy, psychedelic adventure it always promised to be, and not a middling entry in a 14-film-old franchise.

The action sequences with seamless teleporting are perfectly choreographed and the visuals along with the video effects are astutely laid with Wyatt Smith and Sabrina Plisco’s fine edits. Ben Davis’s cinematography is fuzzy in parts. The two brief end-credits teasers give us a taste of things to come. And, overall, “Doctor Strange” will appeal only to Marvel fans, for others it would be a rather outlandish entertainment.

An endless supply of pop culture references and a swagger similar to Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark character from the Iron Man films allow Doctor Strange to showcase Cumberbatch’s talents. But the filmmaking isn’t bold enough to fully revel in the strangeness of the source material. Co-writer C Robert Cargill had said in an interview that an early version of the script was rejected by producer Marvel Studios for being “too weird”, which is exactly what the film needed to be.

Benedict Cumberbatch film shows Marvel heeded fans’ complaints…

Ultimately, in a genre exhausted by noisy vigour, spurious brooding and overwrought CGI, Doctor Strange finds a rare balance between blockbuster de rigueur and playful ingenuity.

The camerawork and CGI are quite immersive. Mind bending sorcery, multiverse battles, time space interjections and more come into play so easily that it almost seems like a daily occurrence. This film may not have the playfulness of a ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, but it certainly makes for an adequate fire-starter of sorts.

With the constant barrage of superhero films, one would think the eventual decline of caped crusaders is inevitable. That might (arguably) be the case, but the MCU shows no signs of releasing comic book fans from their spell, as ‘Dr. Strange’ elevates yet another relatively unknown Marvel character to top tier status, making it well worth a dizzying watch in 3D.