There’s no question MoM is an infinitely better film than its predecessor, but it suffers from switching its director and release date mid-production and ends almost like two films with conflicting aims. This sequel to WandaVision (that annoyingly retreads the Disney+ series badly) has periods where it knows what it is and does it very well - the question marks around Strange’s character and ability as (former) Sorcerer Supreme are genuinely interesting, and neatly cloud the arrival of America Chavez with a sense of foreboding. Strange’s decision making led to the Blip - was he wrong or is the revilement he faces an acceptable price to pay for the unthinkable burden he’s carried? What next is entertaining but largely incoherent. Wanda comes for America and the multiverse and neither director Sam Raimi nor writer Michael Waldron (Loki’s showrunner) manage to keep her character consistent with the ending of WandaVision. Her multi-layered journey in the series is discarded, as she becomes a one-note villain in the name of recovering alternates of her kids. If as a result of the corruption of the Darkhold why is Strange disinterested in saving her? His judgment is questioned by Reed Richards but only in a generic, universal way, and it’s not tied to this conflict. An interesting choice would have been to have dived deeply into Strange’s arrogance, but the film only asks whether or not he’s ‘happy’ and bafflingly returns to Rachel McAdams as love interest. Adams may act a lot better this time but alternate Christine is no more interesting a character than the original. Ultimately the consequences of Strange’s questionable decisions (dismissing Wanda, using the Darkhold himself) appear to be pushed into the inevitable third film, which is just cowardly storytelling and it robs the film of an authentic emotional core. Elizabeth Olsen dominates the screen as the villain, but it’s not where she was left after WandaVision and Prime Wanda is  also only ever put through serious character pressure in the final act. Her simplistic motivations, which WandaVision had moved her past, rob her of any character at all (despite the vague insertion of the scene with Xavier attempting to save alternate Wanda), and the potential of investigating the impact of the Darkhold as a corrupting influence on her is discarded. Wasted too is the otherwise excellent Xochitl Gomez, who also doesn’t progress further than displaying entertaining powers, displaying a Pride badge and showing some welcome sass. That was presumably Marvel identifying her as a lesbian - not insignificant but yet more slim positive pickings in a film that, if more thoughtful, could also have introduced an adolescent Wiccan and Speed but ended without any progress towards the Young Avengers at all. The Illuminati sequence is fun but it feels like a reworked scene from What If? It’s great to see Anson Mount and Hayley Atwell returning in tweaked roles and sublime to see Krasinski appearing as Reed Richards, in a role he’s surely going to resume in the upcoming Fantastic Four. Sublime too is Patrick Stewart matching Atwell in playing a Xavier from ostensibly the cartoon X-Men - both dispatched by Wanda but both surely returning alongside Krasinski in the surely upcoming Secret Wars. It’s the introduction to the now severely signalled event that makes this film noteworthy, despite the dribbles of lame dialogue in the second act that don’t move the multiverse that’s in the title forward, and the casual and infuriating change of heart Wanda has in the last act - a script blemish to rival the new cheeriness in life the Borg Queen develops in Star Trek: Picard. Spider-Man: No Way Home also had strategic work for Phase 4 to do, but where that film was anchored by thoughtful character work, knockout performances, perfectly timed nostalgia and whimsy, Doctor Strange 2 often feels misogynistic, constructed by committee and without any heart at all, despite the very welcome yet drawn out introduction of the horror genre by Raimi into the MCU. Maybe 3’s the charm?