Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) arrives at the temple, looking for a way to get his life back.  After the tragic accident, he lost everything.  Dead end after dead end trying to heal himself, finally brought him to the one place that will heal his soul.  Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) introduces Strange to The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) and she begins her first lesson, knocking Strange right out of his body and taking him on the most thrilling and amazing tour of the universe, of those amazing places that we can not see in this world.  Strange is amazed, he’s ready to learn and asks The Ancient One to teach him everything.  Disgusted, she throws him out of the temple, and locks the door.  Strange, on his knees, begs her to let him back in and teach him.  He begs for hours and hours, and finally, Mordo shows him to his room.

Doctor Strange, written and directed by Scott Derrickson, with a running time of 115 minutes was shot on a combination of digital and film with a budget of $165 million in Kathmandu, London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, England, and New York.  The film is PG-13 and stars, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Rachel McAdams.  The story is about a renown genius doctor, only interested in himself, loses everything when he destroys his hands in a devastating car accident and must find an unconventional way to heal himself and in doing so, must give up all he knows and holds dear.

The film starts off by introducing us to Kaecilius (Mad Mikkelsen) as he steals the pages from the book that will bring him mortality and untold strength and power from The Ancient One, then we are quickly introduced to Doctor Strange as an incredibly successful surgeon that is on the path to saving thousands of people through his research.  He is strong, confident and an ego that, pretty much, surpasses everyone in the film.  Even the woman that loves him, Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) finally decides that he’s too much for her and leaves him.  Doctor Strange, obsessed with his work and his status as a doctor, accidentally drives his car off a cliff, while texting.  He survives, but loses the use of his hands, a necessary ingredient in his success as a doctor in saving lives during surgery.    Surgery after surgery and therapy after therapy does nothing to heal his hands so that he can go back to his life as a doctor.  He even tries therapies that are not approved and still in the testing phases, and nothing helps him.  Finally, while in therapy his therapist tells him of a man that was paralyzed, that was able to heal himself.  Seeking out this man, he learns that the man was healed in India by some monks in a temple.  Doctor Strange sells all his belonging to make the trip to meet the Ancient One and thus begin his journey in becoming “Doctor Strange.”

This movie is a must see on the BIG SCREEN.  The music, special effects, the action do the big screen justice and it is so worth the $10 you’ll spend on the ticket.  Everything about this film is amazing, even the scene when Stan Lee shows up.  And, by the way, I must recommend that you stay all the way through to the end of the credits, there are some very special bonus scenes that you won’t want to miss.

This is a great movie to take your kids with; both adults and children will get a kick out of watching it.  I think I’ll see it again, but this time, take my children with me.  As a practitioner of martial arts, this film has some amazing fight scenes and some pretty deep wisdom to go along.  I can tell that it’s been very well developed and researched.  Catch it while it’s still in the theaters.

Doctor Strange, Full Movie Review with Steffi Grace and Corey Khansari, both film students at HCC: