In case you're wondering if the entire superhero film genre is being monopolized by Marvel, it is my regrettable duty to tell you that it does look that way. There are no superhero free agents out there anymore, and if a lone wolf should be found lurking on a street corner, a Marvel representative will surely appear with a briefcase to offer a deal, a cape and a back story of a traumatic childhood or other circumstances to explain the triggering of mysterious powers.
But it's not all that bad, after all Marvel has produced some of America's best superhero comics and "Doctor Strange," the newest addition to its clan of movies, looks and feels markedly different from the rest. For one thing, the titular hero is played by an uppercrust Briton sporting a weird American accent.
Dr. Strange makes no attempt to hide an overly inflated ego and colossal self-regard. Who else to play such a man than Benedict Cumberbatch, whose career has been built on portraying supremely confident egomaniacs of the Western world? Here, Cumberbatch abandons his curly locks and London man-about-town ambience for graying temples and American mannerisms, and though not prone to wisecracking like his fellow Marvelians, he's thoroughly entertaining. Inevitably he dons the cape and morphs into an action demi-god like everyone else, but there's a certain unshakeable, ironclad dignity about Cumberbatch that's missing from Robert Downey Jr. and Co.