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DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS

What You Need To Know:

In DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, a convoluted Marvel movie, Doctor Stephen Strange meets America Chavez. A scary demon is chasing America. It wants to absorb America’s power to travel between universes. Stephen decides the best person to help him defeat the demon is Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch. Their meeting goes well at first, but it turns out Wanda has been behind the demonic creatures attacking America. Wanda wants to use America’s power to steal two children from a version of herself in another universe. Can Wanda be stopped?

MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS has some fun plot twists, battles and lighthearted, touching moments. It also has a positive moral, redemptive premise. For example, the movie’s hero, Doctor Strange, is trying to protect the teenage girl and stop the evil, selfish villain. There’s also a redemptive finish promoting repentance and extolling the love children have for their mother. However, MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS has a mixed pagan worldview with false religion and evil occult content. It also contains some obscenities, one GD profanity, scary moments, and brief, minor politically correct references to homosexuality.

Content:

(PaPa, FRFR, OOO, BB, C, PC, Ho, LL, VV, A, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:
Strong pagan, mixed worldview features a battle between two Non-Christian, supernatural, spiritual worldviews where, in one, the hero applies mystical Eastern magic like one finds in forms of Buddhism and Hinduism, to battle the evil villain, who uses witchcraft and so-called “black magic” to serve her selfish and evil ends (the hero at one point says he’s a sorcerer but the villain has become a witch, a distinction that doesn’t quite make sense unless you categorize it as Eastern mysticism, but both the hero and the villain use occult means to defeat each other and succeed in their goals (for example, the hero at one point uses occult means [he consults the same evil occult book on witchcraft the villain has been consulting/using] to reawaken a dead person to help him overcome the powerful villain, who’s using witchcraft, but his use of the occult brings some demons into the world that both he and the villain must fight), but the movie’s pagan worldview and false religion are mitigated by a strong moral, redemptive, pro-life premise and ending that promotes repentance, celebrates motherhood, celebrates the love a child feels for a parent, in this case a mother, contains a church wedding about to begin in a Christian church, and includes a main hero who’s trying to protect a teenage girl and stop the evil plans of the villain and who’s trying to stop the troubled female villain from killing another female in another universe and stealing her two children, plus the teenage heroine the hero is trying to help has two mothers, so there are brief, minor politically correct references in two or three scenes to the teenage heroine’s two homosexual mothers

Foul Language:
14 obscenities (a few “s” words) and one GD profanity

Violence:
Strong and light, intense and sometimes scary violence includes monsters fight and wound people, villain gets wounded on her face and body when she battles good guys, hero also gets wounded on his face and body, one character falls and gets impaled one some pointy fence posts, it’s implied that one character’s body is pierced mortally by a sharp object that’s hurled, scary demons come after people, a dead person with gruesome face wounds if reawakened to join the battle against the villain, villain chars some mystical soldiers using her witchcraft powers, one hero has the power to use his voice to kill bad guys, but his power is turned against him, energy bolts are used in multiple battle scenes, villain wrecks a monastery fortress, etc.

Sex:
No sex

Nudity:
No nudity

Alcohol Use:
Brief alcohol use at a fancy church wedding reception

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:
No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:
Villain wants to steal two children from another version of herself in another universe because, unlike the other woman, her boyfriend died before they could get married and conceive any children.

More Detail:

In DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, Doctor Strange battles Wanda Maximoff, the “Scarlet Witch,” who wants to absorb the cosmic powers of a teenage girl so she can have total control of the multiverse, steal the two sons of another version of herself, and keep them safe forever. DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS has a positive moral, redemptive premise where the hero is trying to stop a great evil, but the movie takes place in a conflicted pagan world where the hero and the villain are two Non-Christian characters with different pagan worldviews who use occult means against one another.

The movie opens with Doctor Stephen Strange having a nightmare where a large fiery demon is chasing him and a teenage girl in a strange skyscape of floating objects. The girl appears to have some kind of supernatural powers that the demon wants to absorb, even though doing so would kill her. The demon traps them on a platform, and Stephen decides to absorb the girl’s powers himself to prevent the demon from getting them and save the cosmos and everyone in it. That’s when Stephen screams and wakes up.

Stephen wakes up and gets dressed in his best clothes to attend the church wedding of his former girlfriend and love of his life, Christine. At the reception, Christine wants him to meet her new husband, but Stephen tries to apologize to her for not trying to compromise with her and patch up their differences when they were going together, and he worked as a surgeon. She expresses doubt, however, that Stephen would ever have been able to make the required changes to keep them together. She reminds him they were both too fixated on their careers.

Suddenly, some screams and sounds of crashing from the streets below interrupt them. Stephen quickly dons his sorcerer’s cape and outfit and flies to where the commotion is happening. He sees people running and screaming. Then, as he turns a corner, he sees a large bus being lifted up. Using his magical powers, Stephen makes visible whatever is lifting the bus. It turns out to be a large ruddy colored octopus with a giant eye, the stuff of childhood nightmares. The creature seems to be chasing the teenage girl from Stephen’s dream.

With help from his boss, Wong, the current Sorcerer Supreme, Stephen manages to kill the beast by piercing its eye with a large makeshift harpoon. The girl tells Stephen that his dream really took place, but that the Doctor Strange in his dream was another version of himself from another universe. In fact, his dead body is now resting on the roof of the sorcerer’s sanctum in New York City where Stephen and Wong live.

Back at the sanctum, Strange uses his powers to magically bury the dead body of his other self under the roof. The girl, whose name is America Chavez, explains to him and Wong that among her powers is the power to travel from one universe to another universe. However, the power only happens when she’s really scared. She says her power manifested itself when she was a child. It opened a portal that whisked her two mothers into another universe somewhere, then whisked her into a separate universe. Ever since then, she’s been searching for her two mothers in every universe she’s sent. In all her travels, America tells the two men that she’s never encountered another version of herself. Recently, though, a demon of some kind has appeared as different menacing creatures, like the octopus or the fiery monster from Stephen’s dream, to take America’s powers and, apparently, control or wreck the multiverse.

Stephen decides the best person to help him defeat the powerful demon chasing America is Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, one of the Avengers who, with Stephen, defeated Thanos. He visits Wanda, who still seems to be mourning the fact that she totally imagined the two sons she and the superhero Vision had together, because, in reality, Thanos had murdered Vision in the AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR movie. After defeating Thanos in the sequel to that movie, Wanda suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder due to Vision’s death. To cope with her trauma, Wanda unconsciously used her superpowers to take over a small town and imagine Vision was still alive, and they got married. She also imagined she gave birth to twin boys.

[SOME POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOLLOW] The conversation between Wanda and Stephen goes well at first. However, it turns out that Wanda has been behind the demonic creatures chasing America all along. Also, Wanda has found an evil occult book on witchcraft and has been using its occult instructions and power to increase her own powers greatly. Wanda wants to absorb America’s power to travel across the multiverse to take control of the multiverse. Her goal is to steal the two sons of another version of herself in another universe, a Wanda who really did give birth to twins. She also plans to use America’s powers to keep the two children safe, and healthy, with her forever. This implies an effort to attain a kind of immortality.

Stephen teams up with Wong, and all the monks and sorcerers in their mystical order, to protect the girl, America, from Wanda. However, Wanda has become increasingly powerful. As a result, Stephen and Wong are in for the fight of their lives. Meanwhile, America is left to wonder whether this Doctor Strange will betray her like the other Doctor Strange did.

DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS has some surprise plot twists that bring in other beloved superheroes from Marvel Comics. In fact, in one extended sequence, it brings in two of MOVIEGUIDE®’s favorite actors in all the Marvel movies and television series distributed by Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Disney. This sequence is one of the most exciting parts of the movie’s many action sequences and battles.

MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS has a positive moral, redemptive premise. The movie’s hero, Doctor Strange, is trying to protect the teenage girl and stop the evil plans of the villain, Wanda, who’s using a demonic book on witchcraft to control the cosmos. He and his friend are also trying to stop Wanda from killing another female in another universe and stealing her two children. Eventually, the hero’s battle with the villain leads to a poignant redemptive ending involving the villain’s motive.

The movie’s positive premise and touching ending mitigate its negative or bad worldview elements. For example, early on in the movie, Doctor Strange and his mystical boss, Wong, are clearly upset that Wand is using witchcraft. “I use sorcery, not witchcraft,” Strange proudly pontificates, or something to that effect. Adding insult to injury, Wanda is using an evil occult book on witchcraft to do bad things. Thus, witchcraft has clearly corrupted her. Doctor Strange and Wong, however, are using some form of Eastern mysticism, the kind that one finds in Hinduism and Buddhism and Eastern fantasy and adventure stories. It’s still an occult form of sorcery or magic, though.

Thus, what you have in DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS is a clash of Non-Christian worldviews or false religions. Also, even though the hero, Doctor Strange, is trying to do the right thing by protecting the teenage girl and by stopping Wanda from killing the other mother and stealing her children, like Wanda, he uses occult powers too. For example, he uses occult magic, or sorcery, against Wanda, magic that includes elaborate hand movements. Also, at one point, he consults the same evil occult book that Wanda was using to reawaken the dead version of himself from the opening scene and use his powers against Wanda. By doing this, however, he also causes some demons to be released from Hell, demons that everyone has to fight.

The negative worldview content in MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS hurts the movie’s moral, spiritual acceptability. The movie isn’t totally abhorrent or evil, but it contains too much negative, evil worldview elements to make it acceptable.

Ultimately, the story in MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS is a little too convoluted. It may be hard for some, if not many, viewers to keep tabs on all the various kinds of superpowers and mechanisms the heroes and the villain are using to win the day. Some of this stuff goes by so quickly that it sometimes seems harder than usual to follow the plot. Also, the concept of an infinite multiverse with almost infinite variations of each person and each alien being, with or without godlike powers, strangely dilutes the drama, jeopardy and character attributes on display.

Finally, MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS also contains some obscenities, one GD profanity, some scary moments, and brief, minor politically correct references in two or three scenes to the teenage heroine’s two homosexual mothers. The insertion of silly, immoral, leftist, identity politics in this movie, even if only minimal, begs the question, Where is the teenage heroine’s father? No matter how hard they try, same-sex “parents” will always need a person from the opposite sex to create a child. Also, if it’s okay to have two mothers, why not have three or four mothers? Aside from any moral or spiritual issues, LGBTQ identity politics clearly has some glaring flaws in its ideological ideas, theories, contrivances, and scams.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.