Holy crap. I was not prepared at all for this movie. I’ve seen all the Marvel movies and shows, besides Morbius. And this was far by the darkest one.

We start out with an intense chase and fight through some strange dimension with Stephen running with a young woman from a demon. That dimension was so amazing. Before I can even go on, I have to compliment the effects. The scenes were so amazing to look at and the effects had me gasping in awe.

Back to the plot. Stephen tried to steal the young woman’s power to defeat the demon, and then original Stephen woke up. All a dream, or so it seemed. Stephen headed to Christine’s wedding. I’m assuming she wasn’t dusted. But then again, I’m not sure how long it’s been since the first Doctor Strange movie so maybe she met her husband during that time and was also dusted. It wasn’t made clear.

Of course, the wedding is interrupted by what’s at first, an invisible monster. It’s not explained why it was invisible, but we get the real introduction to America Chavez. The monster, which I thought was that giant eyeball and tentacle monster that attacks universes we saw Agent Carter fight in What if…, was deadset on getting America. Stephen and Wong, who shows up like the boss he is, fight off the monster by cutting off tentacles and using their mystical arts. Again, great effects. After defeating the monster, Stephen and Wong sit down with America and get her story. She has the power to hop between the multiverse. The only problem; she can’t control it. It happens when she’s really afraid. Must suck if you’re afraid of spiders.

America revealed that the dream Stephen had wasn’t a dream, but what was happening in another universe. And her proof? The dead body of that Stephen. Watching Stephen look at his dead body was quite funny, and it only got more bizarre as the movie progressed. Don’t forget about that dead body. It’s important.

Stephen goes to the one person he knows who has experience with very powerful witchcraft; Wanda. Stephen and Wanda chat in her apple grove, which gave a very calm vibe. But Wanda quickly revealed it was all a facade when she asked Stephen to bring her America, even though Stephen hadn’t told her America’s name. Wanda’s been reading the darkhold, and the proof is in her fingertips, which are turning black. She demands America to use her power to send her to a universe where she can be with her sons.

I honestly didn’t expect Wanda to be the villain so quickly. Wandavision gave us such a great look into her grief, but I feel like there could have been a bit more buildup to her villain arc. But, that’s just me.

Stephen, of course, refuses to let Wanda have America and we learn that it was Wanda who has been setting the monsters after America. Wanda attacks the stronghold of the sorcerers and meets the full force of those practiced in the mystic arts, led by Wong, the Sorcerer Supreme. A nice running gag through the movie is Strange refusing to bow to Wong, which is tradition when interacting with the Sorcerer Supreme. Wanda’s ability to mess with people’s minds comes into play during this fight, and she manages to send a poor man running in terror. Sidenote, I wonder if he survived the slaughter or not. If he did, he must be filled with regret. We also see a minotaur, apparently named Rintrah. I’m sure he has some connection to the comics, but to me, it was such a random thing to see. But he was good at mystical arts, and he survived Wanda’s slaughter, so maybe we’ll see him in other movies.

America, in full peril from Wanda, activated her powers and she and Strange are thrown through multiple universes. One where they were briefly cartoons, and another where they were paint. They land in what is called universe 838 (theirs is 616) and try to find that universe’s Doctor Strange. Instead, they find a statue in his honor and Mordo as Sorcerer Supreme. Mordo here isn’t a villain, and he and Strange were friends. However, Mordo does knock out Strange and America, and they wake up in glass boxes, where they are introduced to 838’s version of Christine. This Christine studies the multiverse, and provides some exposition about everything before Strange is whisked away to meet the Illuminati. Yes, the Illuminati. Instead of the Avengers and Shield, they have a group called the Illuminati to tackle problems and make the hard choices. This is where the real fan service came in. The members are Captain Carter, Captain Marvel who is Monica Rambeau, Mordo, Black Bolt, Reed Richards, and Charles Xavier. The yells in my theater when Charles was shown were deafening. They inform Strange that their Strange turned to the Darkhold when Thanos attacked and he became too obsessed with the dark magic. After defeating Thanos, the Illumaniti were forced to kill him (by way of Black Bolt’s sonic voice). Before a vote can be taken on what to do with this Strange, Wanda appears. This Wanda is 838’s version, but is being controlled by 616’s Wanda through something called dream walking. 616 Wanda found where the Darkhold was written and there’s basically a statue of her there, so she decided it was her throne. Wong was forced to take her there and poor guy was put through through so much to do so.

The fight in 838 is the most horror-esque part of the film. Wanda is covered in oil from the ultron robots (fun little thing I caught), which looked like blood in the lighting. She faced down the Illuminati and killed all of them except Mordo (who was trapped by Strange), in very grotesque fashion. She imploded Black Bolt’s head, after removing his mouth, unraveled Reed, cut Captain Carter in half with her shield, brought a giant statue down on top of Captain Marvel, and broke Xavier’s neck in his mind when he tried to rescue 838’s Wanda from her own mind. Of course, to complete the horror troupe, Strange, Christine, and America were chased through tunnels by a very creepy Wanda, complete with jump scares, and zoom in on faces to add to the scariness. The group reaches the Book of Vishanti, the opposite of the Darkhold, which was supposed to defeat Wanda, but Wanda burned it, because of course she did. Can’t have an easy ending here.

Wanda manages to get America back to 616, while Strange and Christine are sent to another universe. The design of this universe was so cool. Everything was disintegrating because it had collided with another universe, destroying both. Strange went in search of his counterpart in that universe, who was the only living thing left. I’ll call him evil Strange because he was using the Darkhold, as shown by his black fingertips (like Wanda’s) and his freaking third eye! That was extremely creepy. Strange and evil Strange had a fight, that was one of the coolest I’ve ever seen on film. They used music notes taken off music pages and from instruments surrounding them as weapons. Whenever a new set of notes were used, the music in the movie changed to match. It was such a cool way to do a fight and really enhance the viewing experience. Strange won and evil Strange feel out of his tower, and impaled himself on a fence. His third eye opening when Christine went to check on him was terrifying.

Strange used the Darkhold to dream walk back in 616, and used the dead body of his that America showed him earlier on. So, if you saw What if…, you got to see zombie Strange animated and in this movie. Him using the souls of the damned to make his cloak was a very intriguing way to get around the cloak issue.

The big climax was what you would expect in a Marvel movie, a big fight. It was still visually appealing with zombie Strange using the souls of the damned to attack Wanda, and Wanda using her powers as she does, by destroying things. America came in clutch and sent Wanda to the universe 838, where she was confronted with that Wanda and her sons. Our Wanda saw the fear in her boys’ eyes and it finally dawned on her that they would never love her if she took 838 Wanda’s place. Wanda then destroyed the Darkhold in every universe, and the structure tumbled on top of her, seemingly killing her.

We then see America training with Wong and the others in mystical arts, and Strange even bowed to Wong. Strange returned to his home and we are shown what using the Darkhold did to him. A third eye opened on his forward, and it looked very painful.

And of course, there were end credit scenes. Strange is pulled into another fight with a woman in purple (the internet told me her name was Clea) who popped in from another dimension, needing Strange’s help. And then the joke scene. Earlier in the movie, when America and Strange landed in 838, America grabbed some pizza balls from a vendor and didn’t know she had to pay in that universe. The man selling them got angry and confronted Strange, who put some sort of spell on him to hit himself for three weeks. The ending scene showed the man finally done hitting himself and yelling, “It’s over!” A rather funny way to end a rather terrifying movie.

Overall, there were some fun parts and amazing visuals, though I questioned Wanda’s evil turn. It felt rather forced and gave me strong Danerys Targaryen vibes from Game of Thrones. I get that the Darkhold tempts people and turns them to the dark side, but Wanda went through this whole character arc in Wandavision where she learned her actions had consequences. Also, side note, was Agatha released when Wanda died? This can’t be the last we see of Wanda since we know she’s in the other universes, and I don’t really buy her death yet. I don’t trust deaths in shows unless we see the body. Other side note, where was white Vision in this? Is he just living his life out there? And I noticed in the other universes, Vision is also missing. I guess his death happened everywhere. Back to Wanda. Did she really think the twin boys would just accept her as their mother? And what about the other Wanda? Would our Wanda just kill her? A lot of questions that Wanda didn’t think through.

America Chavez is a relatively new character in the Marvel comics. She debuted in 2011, and has superspeed, strength and the power of flight along with opening portals to other universes. We saw some of the strength and the portals, but not the other powers, so far. I double checked if she had two moms in the comics, and it is canon, which I love. In the movie, America’s first portal sent her moms flying through and she hasn’t seen them since. Since that seems to be an important part of her story, I assume we will see America go searching for them in a later movie or show. I also really like how they gave us that flashback. Universe 838 had a memory portal thing where you can revisit memories, and this was a good way to give Strange and the viewers her backstory. I also like how she can handle dealing with Strange’s sarcastic nature and throw his remarks right back at him.

This was an interesting movie for sure, and while it was not what I expected and did have some issues (can’t get over Wanda’s sudden turn), it was still fun. I’m curious to see how the multiverse plays into more stories.

To quote pizza ball man, “It’s over!”