Double, double, gargoyles and rubble: There are witchy doings and evil twins aplenty in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," the spookily unhinged new entry in the Marvel Cinematic — uh, Universe? Multiverse? Whatever we're supposed to call this increasingly hydra-headed Disney content behemoth, it has rarely ventured in a direction this playful, this ghoulish, this exuberantly grotesque. That's another way of saying that the latest Strange brew — full of mangled extremities, gouged eyeballs and other freaky flourishes — is the satisfying handiwork of the director Sam Raimi, whose long-overdue return to feature filmmaking is no less welcome for being tied to Hollywood's most continually fatted cash cow.
Raimi, of course, comes to this assignment with no shortage of Marvel movie history under his belt. An early throwaway Spider-Man joke gently reminds you that he directed the original Spidey film trilogy (2002-07), though he's steered clear of the many subsequent chapters, including last year's hugely successful "Spider-Man: No Way Home." That dizzying adventure, with its trio of Spider-Men wreaking meta-havoc on the MCU cosmos, was in some ways a warm-up act for all the multiverse-rattling chaos in store here. Written by Michael Waldron ("Loki"), "Multiverse of Madness" begins with a giant octopus attack and spreads its narrative tentacles from there, yanking us into an alternately goofy and grisly story that pauses every so often to unleash a tidal wave of grief.
Some of that grief is expressed, with a stiff and handsomely goateed upper lip, by Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch, superb as ever), the sardonic neurosurgeon turned mighty red-cloaked sorcerer who still carries a torch for his former lover and colleague, Dr. Christine Palmer (a game if underserved Rachel McAdams). But the real weight of this story's emotional anguish is shouldered not by Strange, but by his old friend Wanda Maximoff (a spectacular Elizabeth Olsen), who — as dedicated MCU scholars with advanced degrees in "WandaVision" studies will know — has drawn on her formidable powers to blot out the trauma of her many unbearable losses.
