The great irony about Marvel’s starting movies is that the ones with the premises and characters that would be most appealing to mainstream audiences are the movies that get played safe while the, pardon the pun, strange and ludicrous ideas are given free range to be as weird as they want. Those latter starter movies tend to be the better ones, and “Doctor Strange” is no exception to this rule.

After a car accident leaves his hands permanently damaged, neurosurgeon Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) travels to Kathmandu in an effort to find a healer. Strange discovers that the healer is actually a sorcerer (Tilda Swinton) of the mystic arts who offers to teach him. Strange accepts, and he soon finds himself caught up in a conflict between the sorcerer and one of her former students (Mads Mikkelsen).

What is so impressive about “Doctor Strange” is that it feels like it is borrowing so much from other Marvel and Disney owned films, while simultaneously using it to create a unique identity for itself. Several aspects of this movie feel like they were taken straight out of previous Marvel movies. The character of Stephen Strange feels somewhat like Tony Stark, while the opening of the movie feels a little like the first “Iron Man.” There is a part about a mystical object that will present itself to the sorcerer when they are ready, like Thor’s hammer does in “Thor.” There are also a couple of elements and ideas in the movie that feel like they were taken from the “Star Wars” movies. All of these things are present, but they are given new interpretations, levels of importance in the story, or just better utilized in general, so that “Doctor Strange” is using them as fundamental elements to take shape instead of just ripping the ideas off.

“Doctor Strange” does not just manage to feel unique by its ability to take pre-existing ideas and make them different, but by also managing to avoid the awful idiosyncrasies of Marvel films. Doctor Strange’s love interest (Rachel McAdams) is used very sparingly and only appears in the film when necessary. The writers did not feel the need to pointlessly shoehorn her into every scene. The references to the cinematic universe are kept to a minimal. The only reference was a quick mention of the “Avengers” tower in a shot of New York, and a character mentioning an object is an infinity stone at the end of the movie. The end of the movie is not anti-climactic, and the defeat of the villain is actually creative. The only aspect that suffers as it does in almost every Marvel movie is that the main villain is not very interesting. That is the case with Mikkelsen’s character, but at least he has some amount of a backstory, and a plan that actually makes sense and remains consistent with his motivation.

The comedic material of the film is also well handled. With the exception of Strange seemingly trying way too hard to be funny to the librarian Wong (Benedict Wong) and a couple of other times when the jokes just felt forced and unneeded, the humor is worked in fluently. Even some of the dialogue from characters that it would be considered uncharacteristic for them to be making a joke works.

The character’s mystical abilities open the realm of possibilities for what can be done, and that is something the writers put to use. These freedoms allowed for the most diverse settings of any of the Marvel movies, some extremely enjoyable and creative action sequences, and just allowed for the film to be as visually interesting as possible. There was a point when Strange is being introduced to the powers and the entire world basically becomes a stereotypical psychedelic drug trip.

The good writing does not just stop at the creativity the writers took advantage of with the film’s premise. Doctor Strange is easily one of the more interesting Marvel protagonists, as he is just an everyday person acting out of desperation whom the audience is continuously getting a new perspective on. The relationship between Cumberbatch’s and McAdam’s characters is not as prominent in the story, but still holds a lot of weight and emotion to it. Even the side characters are fairly well developed.

“Doctor Strange” is ultimately what all of the starter Marvel films should have been. It is a fun, well-crafted and intelligently handled super hero movie that feels like something unique instead of an assembly line product.