So the thing that really jumps out at me in this movie is how badly it fucked up Wanda’s storyline. It simultaneously demands that you’ve seen WandaVision, but then tells a character arc that only works if you didn’t see WandaVision (which repeated that same “you need to learn to let go of the ones you love and not commit evil acts to hold onto them” arc).

What’s worse, it does it here while reinforcing that sexist “women can’t be trusted with power” trope. The movie literally lampshades the badness of that trope with Wanda’s little speech (which was in the trailers) about how she fucks up and is a villain, while Doc fucks up and is a hero. And then… they just go ahead and lean into that sexist trope for the whole movie, doubling down on her as villain and him as hero, even as they make almost identical choices at various points. And yes, they both learn better at the end, whereupon she gets a redeemed villain’s noble death while he gets the sequel hook. Absolute garbage.

Beyond that, the plot is an overstuffed hot mess, where nothing gets time to breathe except Cumberbatch mooning across the multiverse at the woman who is not interested in him, who tbh I had forgotten existed before this movie, so it doesn’t really resonate as some grand tragic romance. America Chavez, one of Marvel’s best characters, is completely wasted here as a glorified macguffin.

From an over-arching MCU plot perspective, it introduces a whole bunch of new stuff — the Illuminati, the “multiversal incursion” stuff that led up to the 2015 Secret Wars — that could drive a whole phase of MCU movies, but… is that where this is all going? Or are we doing Celestials? Or are we somehow doing all of this? Or something else entirely? Feels weird to be like five movies in and have no idea where anything is going still, even while every single movie is spending half its running time setting up the next ones.

Basically, irredeemable trash, but Raimi does a good job directing the schlock horror stuff, and it’s enjoyable enough in the end, so it ends up as a middle of the pack MCU movie.