#frostandflamesrants

[frostandflamesthoughts]

Welcome to Elowyn's Review of Assembled: The Making of Multiverse of Madness.

Yes, I finally sat down to watch it. Follow me, dear children, as we settle in for a new adventure.

**MAJOR SPOILERS FOR MoM AND THE ASSEMBLED SPECIAL ON DISNEY PLUS -- PROCEED WITH CAUTION (I attempted to keep all spoilers under the cut**

Not the biggest fan of the person they chose to be the host, but okay

“First film did a great job describing the journey of Doctor Strange….[now] it’s about what he’s become and the price he’s had to pay.” Um. . . The only place we’ve seen that is with Stephen’s relationship with Christine. Which went so downhill so fast. Where else did we see it? There was no universe he was actually happy in, he’s just been destined to make sacrifices??? You easily could have combatted this with a SINGLE universe where Stephen had a happy ending. Maybe not with Christine but something???

That last point totally wasn’t me being feral over father Stephen. 

Ugh. Wedding suit Stephen. Thank you, Waldron and Raimi. I will give you this victory. 

“He’s all powerful and perfect…I wanted to know how he’d gotten there.” I have comments but- HOLY CRAP ITS THE GIF WITH THE UNDONE TIE AND DRESS SHIRT! YESSSS!

After that brief outburst… oops. If he’s all powerful and perfect, let’s see him weak for a change. Let’s delve deeper into the inner trauma rather than just a heartbreak from Christine. We barely scratched the surface, even with the mention of Donna. 

Oh. Okay Benedict mentions the cost of his abilities now. Still, I point to the fact we never saw the idyllic life Stephen would have wanted and actually gave up. We saw nothing but his infatuation with Christine. 😢

Another good point by BC; Stephen is in an emotional state at the beginning of MoM. We can kinda see his tough guy persona come out after that, especially with the memory bank scene. 

Aw Papa Strange! 

How did I not know Xochitl wore glasses? That makes her even more adorable. 

Ugh the costumes are beautiful 

The fact that Benedict Wong just asked what TikTok is makes me love him even more. And the dancing- oh my god it’s like a little family. 

Why are we calling Zombie Strange, “Dead Strange”? Not liking that. 

There’s going to be a hot take from me later on evil Wanda. But I would have liked to see Wanda go bad at the end of MoM, if at all. 

Also can we talk about Lizzie Olson’s makeup and costume? And her avoidance of calling Wanda evil? 😂😂

So are we just saying that WandaVision isn’t exactly canon? Is that what we’re saying, Waldron???

I love the explanations of Wanda’s costume. The attention to detail is fantastic. 

“She just loved too much” …… there’s a difference between loving too much and allowing an evil book corrupt you. 

Let’s talk about the VFX and production prep because that is so cool. It really gives you such a great view into what is needed to make a movie and you get a greater appreciation for everything. The winch camera is clever and I didn’t realize at first that it would be from Wanda’s POV. 

“Just so we Can use Benedict’s face as much as we can” Love it. 

Awww Xochitl getting excited over the wire work!!! I’d adopt her if I could because she’s so freaking adorable. 

So the Illuminati was just pulling crap out of thin air? It’s believable. But I mean…..really?

Okay slightly weird seeing the prep work for the Mordo and Stephen fight. I don’t hate it

Captain Carter!! I would like to see her have her own movie at some point, although that isn’t possible in the canon 616-MCU or whatever label we have for this reality. 

I appreciate the combat efficient suit rather than skin tight. But I mean, damn does she look good.  Am I about to do some Captain Carter fic? Maybe. Who knows. 

The blossoms in that scene were artificial?!? Oh that’s incredible. 

The sets are stunning. They just are so so detailed. We need to give them a standing ovation because there’s so much there and the little nods to culture, both within the MCU and real life. I would love to live on these sets. 

The attention to detail again when it comes to the spells and the tutting… the different use of gestures is interesting to me. I wish I could have seen more of the behind the scenes of the OG Doctor Strange film. 

The 15 universe scene, I have a love-hate relationship with it. It reminds me of how much they just kinda slapped onto the script. 

I’ve just noticed how much Supreme’s hands shook. Did anyone else see if 616-Stephen’s hands shook this film?

I appreciate the description of how Sinister Strange was meant to be darker. I would have liked to see more of his backstory. Going to echo my friend, @sobeautifullyobsessed’s idea of a D+ series. 

Dreamwalking?? Super cool concept and I loved it. Zombie Strange…could take or leave him. 

Raimi-isms? The horror element is interesting. I didn’t entirely hate it. Actually has me more interested in horror genre films! I’m pretty sure I’m going to have a heart attack at some point but thanks Marvel 😂

“I saw Sherlock Holmes. That boy can act” you can say that again! 

The overall environment of the filming process looks to be very encouraging and you could tell that everyone was super passionate about the project. I mean, even watching it, it’s encouraging and I think it was a great matchup. I really just wish the script wasn’t being written while it was being filmed. It could have been even more amazing than it was. 

Stephen’s emotional growth. Okay, I will 100% stand by all of this and it’s a beautiful explanation of his relationship with America. I think what would have been interesting was if America had tried to discover some of her abilities while they were traveling through the multiverse and Stephen had to stop her and take control a bit more. We didn’t really see a lot of that? Maybe it’s just me. 

The potential of evil to be awakened inside of Strange would be interesting as well. I look forward to seeing what would become of his character in a Doctor Strange 3, which I really hope is announced at SDCC in two weeks. Stephen deserves to be on the path to happiness, but maybe he needs to struggle with his inner demons that attack HIM first. Fingers crossed that means we get Nightmare. 

“Marvel is about finding the humanity in the icon.” I’ll just leave that phrase here and point to my rant thus far. 

Next time on Elowyn Reacts, we’ll tackle my actual thoughts on MoM as a whole. If you made it this far, have a cookie from the Cumber-batch and a Stephen! If you want to see more types of posts like this, let me know what you want me to react to in the comments. As of right now, I'm currently watching Stranger Things for my new obsession, as well as Patrick Melrose, so if either of those tickle your fancy, let me know! Until next time, little sparks!