STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

In this latest Marvel adaptation, brilliant but arrogant surgeon Dr Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is involved in a car crash, and loses the senses in his hands. In order to find out the secret behind his recovery, he travels to Kathmandu, Nepal, where he meets The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) and Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor.) Whereas the Avengers fight their enemies with force, this is a group that harnesses their inner power beyond the mortal world, in order to defeat Kaerilius (Mads Mikkelson) and stop his plan to destroy the natural world and its order.

The latest origin story in the Marvel juggernaut stands alone, and marks a shift in approach to the traditional superhero persona. While it's as laden with dazzling visual effects and set pieces as the usual fare, DS seems to revolve around a more cerebral bend than the smash and bash antics of Spider-Man, Iron Man and the like. Strange is a character in his own right, on his own mission, and who better than current man of the moment Cumberbatch to play him, which he does very well, embodying the lead character in every inch as, reliably, do co stars Swinton and Ejiofor.

As entertaining as they are, too many of these superhero films nowadays get weighed down in endless back story, dragging proceedings on for longer than they really need to, especially the 'origin' stories. So it's to the films credit that it's nice and short, delivering the goods without over-whelming the audience. Like the best of them, it also has a neat sense of humour and keeps its tongue firmly in its cheek. The special effects and action sequences are also amazing, dazzling and colourful. The problem is, the story just isn't interesting or compelling enough, and it's impossible to care about the characters or their motivations enough to get engaged with it. And that, sadly, is a big problem.

The end impression you take away from the film is one of pity. It has everything fundamentally going right for it, it's just what's on the surface that lets it down. Maybe they'll get it right with the next film. **