The general sense of nausea surrounding the release of Batman v Superman felt indicative of the strange paralysis Hollywood seems to be in: stuck rehashing tired narratives of superheroes that people will grudgingly still see (albeit not as much!) because what else is being offered besides tired narratives of superheroes? (We seem especially doomed to action movie repetition with the backwards logic taken by Warner Bros. from the disappointing box office stats from Batman v Superman — which wasn’t the more sensible “let’s make more mid-budget movies,” but rather, as Flavorwire’s own Jason Bailey dishearteningly explains, “let’s just focus on the big-budget stuff.”)
However, within the endless cycles of superhero movies, sometimes Tilda Swinton beats up Benedict Cumberbatch. In this bleak film landscape, you’ve gotta look for gems like that, and with the teaser trailer (“teaser” being somewhat meaningless — it’s two minutes long) for Dr. Strange there certainly are a few such gems.
In the film, Benedict Cumberbatch plays a surgeon who gets in a car accident and in recuperation becomes, duh, a sorcerer, with a little help from Tilda Swinton as his mentor, the Ancient One. (In the trailer, she’s not really beating him adversarially so much as, it seems, attempting to show him where his true powers lie via some intensive training).
The movie, directed by Scott Derrickson, also stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, and Mads Mikkelsen.
Watch the trailer:
The Marvel film is set for release November 4, 2016.