This film isn't outright bad, and it has some strong points. However, it strongly suffers from a variety of writing issues, among other problems.

This sequel has some of the strengths that I've come to expect from an MCU movie: (mostly) great acting, stylish characters, and envelope-pushing visual effects. Dr. Strange capitalized on the last point to the fullest, given its psychedelic subject matter. Like a few of the recent MCU movies, this one also has some very strong cameos.

That's roughly where the strengths end, though. Another typical strength of MCU movies is the witty dialogue, which this largely lacks. In addition, Xochitl Gomez's wooden performance would have worked fine for some characters, but not for the wisecracking street kid that her character is treated as. (For the record, I thought that Brie Larson was fine in Captain Marvel.) Her visual theme is also extremely on-the-nose. However, the big, big problems from this movie revolve around the plot and the villain.

I think most No Way Home viewers had a pretty sensible expectation for this movie's premise: Strange cleaning up the effects of his botched, multiverse-breaching spell. It's quickly obvious that the movie isn't going there at all. The writers threw away a perfectly fine plot and made some wild jumps in both exposition and character development to conjure another one. (Perhaps the jumps made more sense for Disney+ subscribers, but the writers shouldn't rely on that.) There are secondary plot issues, too, including an obviously nonsensical MacGuffin.

The villain's motive was reasonably interesting, but their associated world-building was a mess. Their backstory contains some inexplicable, ad-hoc components that remain mysteries to even the villain themselves. Also, their non-cohesive, ever-escalating mishmash of abilities should have allowed them to instantly defeat the main heroes, as they did with other characters. This is especially disappointing since the writers tried to blend this movie with the horror genre--just as the Guardians movies are part comedy and Captain America 2 & 3 are part political thriller. It didn't work in this case, though, since Steven Strange's very clanky plot armor releases the tension. The villain's unique powers occasionally result in some very gripping moments, but other action scenes repeatedly degenerate into Dragon Ball Z-style laser duels.

Altogether, the film is probably worth a watch for niche crowds, such as die-hard Marvel viewers, occult enthusiasts, computer graphics nerds, and Cumberbatch fangirls, but I do not recommend it for a general audience. Aside from being dark and incredibly weird, it has numerous writing-related flaws that are uncharacteristic of other MCU movies and bode poorly for the future of the franchise.