On Tuesday 25th October, I experienced WoW
twice within the space of a few hours. The DVD of the 25th anniversary
films of Miss Saigon arrived and more than lived up to expectations, although
the two DVD set does not include the curtain call performance by members of the
original cast shown on the recent cinema relays and the list of theatres where
the production is to tour in 2017 is significantly short with six venues and none
between Leicester and Edinburgh. I will review the DVD’s later. I thought there
was time to go and see the film set in Africa about a school age child with
ambition to become a chess champion called Queen of Katwe but as the performance
was at five I booked to attend the following day, but noted there was still
time to attend the new Benedict Cumberbatch Marvel Comics character film Doctor
Strange and about which I knew nothing. The film also stars Tilda Swinton as
the Ancient One and Cheiwetel Ejiofor both with outstanding backgrounds in
Theatre, TV and Film and several other top notch actors.
I have commented recently on the reduction in the number
of epic films in 3 D and some of the recent Marvel Comic productions which rely
so heavily on CGI have failed or not attracted the level of public response to
encourage the kind of expenditure which such films require especially if they
are to achieve new amazing cinematograph experiences.
From an article about the film in the Guardian 22nd
October 2016, I learned that Benedict had flown to Katmandu where part of the
film takes place, set shortly after completing his National Theatre
performances as Hamlet and which I viewed with many others at one of the Relays
which most cinema chains held. He also mentioned the impact of having become a father.
Benedict plays Dr Strange a leading surgeon using the latest
technics of micro surgery who has become an arrogant and hypercritical individual
with an exceptional wealthy lifestyle living on his own. He loses his ability
to work following a serious road accident and spends all his time and fortune
trying to find a way to regain the use of hands upon which his work depends.
This leads him to meet someone who has
recovered from a disability against all rational knowledge about what is
possible and this leads him to go and search for the Ancient One who is in
Katmandu. The key or pivotal momentum is
when the Ancient One challenges the view that the universe is one dimensional and
of singular material substance rooted in knowable cause and effect which will
appeal to all those who believe in the supernatural, other dimensions, in
spirit and soul, the outer body experience, the possibilities of immortality
and the all seeing all controlling entities of good and evil personified in a God
and in a Devil and above all of these, and the subject which has always
interested
me most, the power of the physical mind over the rest of the physical body and to command or control other
physical entities external to the body and which is on the spectrum of affecting
perception, conjuring to magic and it is
this respect that the film attempts to make visual translation through the use
of CGI.
The film does have
some WoW moments through its perception and time bending effects, through its colourful
visualization of other dimensions and representation of evil and the devil and
of being caught up in a painful horrifying self-awareness of being in an
endless repeating cycle of the same event hell, but with the possibility of
being able to break out from this. The film is also about how sceptics who
convert become zealots and the belief that nothing is impossible. It terms of the
story the pattern of the baddies appearing to win but the superhero finding an unconventional
way(s) to win at the last moment is once more repeated although the eventual
victory is never left in doubt with a good twist in terms of inevitable
casualty(casualties) but not in terms of the sacrifices superheroes need to make
if he or she is put others before their own interests and pleasures. The jokes
are clever and wry and I noted that I started to laugh sooner than most in the
audience but everyone quickly caught up. A good way to judge a film is how soon
the audience begins to leave, at the immediate end of the film, as the credit progress
because they have been alerted there is endpiece or stay until the cleaning
staff arrive. This time there was no movement until the end piece during the credit
and the majority were still in their seats digesting the experience as I left
with the last few pages of credits rolling. It is one of the most enjoyable of
the comic book action movies and in which I was engaged throughout and
experienced moments of Wow, but nothing like the same level of flesh tingling
WoW, WoW and more WoW 
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