strange phd

Marvel movies are still coming, and we can see a progression on what type of superpowers and greater powers, and crazy stuff is going happen next...

• a high school student from public school Spiderman protects his friends in New York 
• students from a special private school, the X-men fights for the protection and integration of mutants in society
• a team with people from different educational levels, which we can average as undergrads called the Avengers show up when Earth is in danger of threats
• a masters in planning named Star lord, leads the Guardians of the Galaxy to keep the universe safe
• PHD, actually a doctor show saves lives, but due to an accident lost his abilities, and had to go onto a journey to be come part of a group of "sorcerers" to protect the"multi-universes" from evil forces, and his name is Dr Strange.

I watched Dr Strange on the weekend, and it was fun to watch. I am a bit of Marvel fan, so I will probably not get bored with superhero movies. Dr Strange is indeed a good origin-type movie that explains the background of a superhero before he became one, and the sequence of events that mold his character and solidify his resolve to fight for good.

The effects and the fighting was pretty interesting as it had some inception sauce and matrix spice. The character development was good, and I enjoy the comedic relief.

** spoilers alert **

One of the cool things about the movie is that there is a bunch of religious overtones. I mean, Dr Strange belongs to a group of "sorcerers" from Nepal, who draws power from other universes to create teleportation gates, shields, and weapons. The fact that it draws power from some sort of impersonal force, it has influence from the pantheistic worldview.

Another interesting concept shown is the art of "surrendering" when Dr Strange first was having issues with generating a teleportation gate, as he was trying to use that force to bend his way, but instead he had to surrender to it to use his power accordingly.

There are interesting characters who has very different motivations:

• You also have the "Ancient One" who always looked very wise, and she was a person with very good intentions who unfortunately had to break some rules and use the power of  evil to do good things while forbidding others from doing so. 
• This lead to a rebellion from a talented student who went ahead to practice the dark arts since he probably thinks the Ancient One is deceiving him. 
• Then you have Mordo who is self-righteous, and shows not much grace to those who "breaks the rule", and unfortunately due to his self-righteousness he now wants to annihilate other sorcerers. 
• There is also the guy who was paralyzed, and was able to recover by learning the "arts", but chose not to use if for a greater good, instead kept it for himself.
• Dr Strange started with been very self-conceited and proud, and shifted to be self-less and willing to sacrifice his own time and life to protect the earth

The villain's motivation was not portrayed as clear, but he did expressed the he abhorred the reality of "death", so he wanted to seek the dark arts to gain the eternity. That's not a bad start to start a spiritual conversation, because indeed the bible does speak about "eternity is written on our hearts" (Ecclesiastes), and there is a human longing for such concept, and we know that through Christ we are able to access to God our Father be able to spend an eternity with Him.

** end of spoilers **