OK, so I’m not much of a Marvel movie fan. But, I am a huge fan of Benedict Cumberbatch and he was the main reason I went to watch Dr. Strange. All I can say is that this movie exceeded my expectations and that I would totally go back and watch it again.

In this movie, Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) faces a dilemma: to return to his former glory as a neurosurgeon, or give it all up and continuously risk his life to save the world. What put him in that position in the first place was credited to a terrible accident which ruined the functionality of his hands, jeopardizing his career. Desperate to save his medical legacy, Dr. Strange searches for possible treatments. When all else fails, he finds himself at the hands of the ‘Ancient One.’ There, he learns that despite all of his knowledge of life, he actually knows nothing.

Dr. Strange’s character development and Cumberbatch’s impressive portrayal of the role is the reason why I enjoy watching his movies. It didn’t feel like Cumberbatch was a good actor playing the character of Dr. Strange, instead it was as if Cumberbatch was Dr. Strange. He managed to put himself into the character, making his expressions so authentic and not at all scripted.

One thing I appreciated was that Dr. Strange’s love interest, Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams), didn’t sway the angle of the movie, which is very common in typical action movies. Sure there were some moments, but all it did was give more depth into Dr. Strange’s character without overdoing the romance. Speaking of McAdams, her acting was so amazing that I didn’t even realize that she was Regina George from Mean Girls. Of course both characters were significantly different from each other, but McAdams’s acting has evolved so much since Mean Girls.

To be frank, when I first walked into the theater, I was concerned this movie wouldn’t meet the expectations set by Cumberbatch’s past roles in Sherlock and The Imitation Game. Again, I’m not the type of person that can deal with pure action for two hours, but this movie beat the cliche and exceeded my expectations. Whenever it would feel that the fighting and superpowers were reaching the limit, there would always be a discrete shift toward comedy filling the room with laughter.

Those comedic scenes were pretty entertaining, but it wasn’t the actual jokes that were amusing. What made it hilarious was when Dr. Strange would crack a joke to lessen the tension but it would end up making his already awkward situation more uncomfortable. The fact that his situations were so relatable to my embarrassing ones, made me like the movie even more. One character that really contributed to the humor in those scenes was Wong (Benedict Wong), and how unresponsive he was to Dr. Strange’s comedic references, which probably made him one of my favorite characters, aside from Dr. Strange of course.

Dr. Strange is a movie that everyone can watch: those who wish to watch it with their families, enjoy action, prefer comedy, find interest in sci-fi, and even those who cherish meaningful lessons. All in all, I would definitely recommend Dr. Strange no matter what movie preference someone may have since this movie has something for everyone.