Okay, so, I loved it. I was worried it wouldn’t be able to keep me entertained without a Spiderman or Iron Man soaring about, but it did. Big time.

First off, special effects… these days, unless they’re being cheapskates, the effects look like reality.

Second, the storyline: Dr. Strange must save the teenaged, multi-dimensionally-powered America Chavez from being chased by and killed for her power by an evil entity. This is a spoiler so I’m not gonna drag it out. It’s Wanda and she’s gone batshit since we last saw her in “WandaVision”. I’m sure she tried to bravely live life without Vis and her boys, but she got her hands on the Darkhold to get back to them and now she’s more Scarlett Witch than our lovable Wanda. Her plan is to suck the power out of America (thereby murdering her) so she can travel across dimensions at will, find an alternate reality with her sons in it, and just live there with them.

Heartbreaking in its yearning and simplicity, but mindless of the people in the infinite realities that she will affect. While she’s been using the Darkhold, it has taken its toll and made her evil, evil, evil. Lots of monks die in an embarrassing slaughter at Kamar Taj (why they thought they could fight off Wanda is beyond me; even Thanos was scared of her). Strange and America travel through dimensions and we get to see Marvel’s idea of alternate realities, including one where we’re all paint.

There’s a big battle at the end wherein America gains confidence and learns to control and use her badass power: punching a star-shaped hole in our reality to connect to another dimension. Whether or not she could just pick a specific dimension was not explained, but while the Scarlett Witch had America in her control and almost killed her, she was able to control America’s power, so I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before she’s got it all figured out.

Sadly, Strange and Christine are almost-but-not-quite a thing in all realities. I thought that was kinda dull and depressing. Oh! We get to see Professor X (Sir Patrick Stewart) and a few other characters we’ve never met in the roles of Reed Richards, Black Bolt (whose death is actually hilarious), and Captain Marvel, who is Agent Carter (I swear, Disney loves her), in the Marvel fictional society of good known as the Illuminati. The Scarlett Witch kills them all in imaginative ways in what must have been less than five minutes.

You guessed it, the good guys win. Strange lives, Sorcerer Supreme Wong lives, pissed-off Mordo is still out there being pissed off (maybe Strange 3?), America lives and begins training at Kamar Taj, and everyone is happy snappy. Except Wanda, who came through at the last minute and saved us all. And then died, presumably. I’m sure we’ll see her again.

Also, Strange winds up with a third eye. “The Darkhold exacts a heavy toll,” Sinister Strange tells us earlier in one of the universes. That was trippy and off-putting. Hopefully, Strange 3 will find a way to make it less ooky-looking.