Doctor Strange bears a lot of similarities to many of Marvel's origin movies, but director Scott Derrickson put an interesting twist on the Marvel formula with the ending of the film subverting a big MCU trope that has been a point of criticism in recent years.
Full spoilers for Doctor Strange continue below, so don't read on if you haven't seen the film yet.
If you look at the climaxes of most Marvel Cinematic Universe films -- and superhero films in general -- usually the crisis the titular heroes are trying to prevent is some city-destroying, world-ending calamity. From the Chitauri invading New York in The Avengers to Ronan and his fanatical Kree trying to destroy Xandar in the Guardians of the Galaxy, there's usually a lot of mass destruction wrapping up these films.
That's why Derrickson decided he wanted to end his movie with a city being rebuilt instead of destroyed. Sure, Hong Kong was destroyed before Doctor Strange and Mordo arrived to fight Kaecilius and his goons, but the crux of the final act is Strange having a face-down with Dormammu that, if he won, would allow him to turn back time with the Eye of Agamotto and fix the destruction that was done.
"The cliché is every Marvel movie ends with a fight scene where you’re destroying a city and you’ve got to close a portal," Derrickson explained during a Q&A at Entertainment Weekly's Popfest. "I thought, let’s un-destroy a city."
It's an interesting twist on a familiar formula, and hopefully a sign of more subversiveness to come. Doctor Strange didn't entirely break the pattern of Marvel's largely forgettable villains, and as mentioned above, its take on the origin story felt very familiar. But knowing Marvel is aware of these criticisms and is looking to turn them on their head is a promising sign for the MCU as it comes off the release of its 14th movie.
Doctor Strange's subverted ending is one smart step in the right direction for Marvel, providing that the filmmakers behind the franchise aren't turning a deaf ear to the franchise's criticisms. It also seems like a trend, coming off both Captain America: Civil War and now Doctor Strange, that it won't be the conflict of world destruction propelling all of these stories more anymore (except, likely, when Thanos eventually shows up).
"Arguably, one of the biggest scenes we've ever had in a movie was the airport battle in Civil War, and there weren't world-ending stakes in that scene, there wasn't an asteroid smashing into a city in that scene, but there was a conflict between the characters that made you feel something," Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige told Vulture.
Looking forward, it seems as though Marvel is going to continue mixing things up. Its next "origin" movies feature deep dives into characters already established in the MCU: Spider-Man, Black Panther, the Wasp and Captain Marvel, if she ends up being introduced in Avengers: Infinity War as expected. When Phase 3 wraps up and Marvel announces its slate for Phase 4, Feige already teased that the films are going to start feeling a lot different.
"I think it's possible to have more intimate movies after that, or to have more interesting, unexpected combinations of characters after that, absolutely. It never is intentionally about 'being even bigger," he said. "To us, it's less about continuing to go bigger with spectacle — although in some cases, we will — and more about continuing to go deeper with those character interactions."
Terri Schwartz is Entertainment Editor at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.
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