I can make two conclusions after watching this movie - Marvel lost it and got so bad that even DC are finally making better movies than them. Whoever is responsible for approving scripts and greenlit movies in Marvel has got to go. And the second one is an old conclusion, already obvious for a long time - Disney are ruining everything they touch.

There are two different ideas in this Doctor Strange movie. First idea is the superficial action adventure, with silly looking monsters and very cartoonish action. The dialogs written for the characters are idiotic, the key plot elements like explaining dreams as other universes, or that Illuminati group, are jokes, the complete and total mess of this story is unfocused and just meaningless. The result is pointless mess, completely forgettable and irrelevant. Compare this stupid fantasy fairytale to the first Iron Man or to Winter Soldier and you see the depth of the silliness that Marvel has fallen into. The current MCU phase switched to fantasy, childish stories, younger and immature characters, and directed to much younger audience.

And this spectacle direction towards younger audience is only more emphasized by the second idea, found under all these layers of silliness and stupidity. That idea is much serious, much more mature and realistic, much more interesting and has greater potential that could've been a much better movie if only someone in Marvel had bigger balls.

Both Strange and Wanda are superheroes in midlife crisis, feeling unhappy with their life. Both present clear signs of depression, locked in a vicious cycle of guilt from the past events, doubting their life decisions, constantly being reminded how their choices affected so many others with lethal consequences. Despite having supernatural abilities, they both vulnerable to critique, they lack confidence, second guessing everything they do. This leads both to look for a way to resolve their unhappiness, and they find a way to search for universe in which they are seemingly happy, in which they have their own piece of mind. Wanda is looking for a way to be with her two annoying sh!ts she calls "my boys", truly insufferable kids which for some reason hang with their mother instead of being normal. And Strange is looking for a universe in which he did all the right decisions and end up with Christine. Both desires are childish and unrealistic fantasies, with "happily ever after" vibes, probably because both are too depressed and escape their reality by imagining such flawless and idealized illusion. Or maybe because both are superheroes able to manipulate the reality, which gives them a false sense of impunity and causes them to falsely believe they can repress their guilt, doubts and depression, and force the reality to become what they want. But as they both look through the multiverse and meet with their other selves, they finally has to deal with and accept their own reality, that the solution is not found in some idealized fantasy in their head, but in trying to find a way to accept themselves and find happiness in their own world.

Now that would be a great movie if that plot was front and center, dealing with the crisis in a mature way. Such movie could've been both serious drama and great action adventure. And I don't need to look too far for an example, just see what DC did with Joker. That movie was a result of a company being completely destroyed and at the very bottom. DC were cornered and broken down, their movies were complete sh!t show, so from their worst condition, because nothing else worked, they just said "f*ck it" and simply went for it. The result was a complete revival, change of direction and frankly much better movies than they did before. While Marvel and Disney still have false assumption that what they do still works, denying reality that everything they did last two years is a complete garbage. This is why no one had balls to do such movie, they prefer to keep producing family friendly garbage as long as parent can show it to their kids.

And this is completely Disney's fault. They ruined Pixar to the point no one can recognize them anymore, they ruined Marvel, and I don't even mention what they did to Star Wars, that's whole different story. Star Wars as a franchise is now shapeless and gooey blob of pure garbage juice mixed with rat feces, scrapped from the bottom of a garbage disposal truck. And with it Disney are now feeding Star Wars fans, wrapping it in a fancy and colorful package and promoting it as a tasty snack. I am afraid it is also a near future of Marvel. Well, as long as they sell this crap they will keep doing it. It is our responsibility as consumer to stop buying that and hit them where it hurts - their wallets, to bring them down to the bottom and break them. We'll see what they have after that.