Warning: Spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to follow.
It’s been a month since Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness made its jump to cinemas, treating us to an exuberant adventure filled with more cameos than Scarlet Witch’s body count.
Despite being the highest-grossing film of 2022 thus far, it doesn’t seem to fair as well as the rest of the MCU family when it comes to fan or critic opinion, maintaining a 74 percent critic approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While the fan rating sits at a more comfortable 86 percent, there seems to be more disapproval surrounding the film in various corners of the internet.
One such corner is Reddit, where a post in r/marvelstudios laid out the poster’s gripes with the mid-credits scene. In the scene, a character named Clea (played by Charlize Theron) appears before Doctor Strange and warns him about an incoming incursion. Doctor Strange, now sporting a mysterious third eye, follows Clea into the Dark Dimension.
One of the user’s chief issues is how Clea’s ability to jump between dimensions undermines the plot of the film, as America Chavez seemed to be the only one who had such an ability, which was the reason Scarlet Witch had been chasing her down in the first place. But, one response pointed out that Clea is jumping between dimensions within a universe, and not between universes like Chavez can.
The poster also wondered why Scarlet Witch couldn’t travel through the multiverse if it’s not an ability unique to Chavez, as Clea did. But, a responder pointed out that Clea and Scarlet Witch have different types of powers, meaning there’s no reason that Scarlet Witch should absolutely be able to travel through the multiverse (moreover, that would undermine the plot of the movie even moreso).
It just goes to show that trying to poke holes in movies that have to do with magic, multiverses, and Bruce Campbell cameos isn’t the most effective use of one’s time and that it’s important to remember that not everything that drives the plot forward is a plot hole.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is currently playing in theaters.