Also available on DVD and 3D Blu Ray

Arrogant genius brain surgeon Stephen Strange has his life turned upside down by a serious accident which destroys his hands. Now, he must harness a new power and newfound understanding of what’s important in life to fulfil his destiny and save the world.

As far as the movie itself goes, you can go here for a proper review. Suffice it to say here that the Blu Ray format really allows that gorgeous muted but wide colour palette and those insane special effects to really pop off the screen. Some of the epic scale of certain shots is inevitably lost in the transfer to the smaller screen, but in all I don’t feel it’s a movie that suffers as much as some when not shown on a cinema screen.

But what we are here to discuss is the extras, and what we have here is one of the more generous packages from the MCU, fourteen films in.

First of all, the featurettes. If, like me you prefer to watch these things all at once using the ‘play all’ feature (and for the first viewing I would recommend you did) then set aside an hour to do so. Split into A Strange Transformation, Strange Company, The Fabric of Reality, Across Time and Space and The Score-cerer Supreme, what we get here is one of the more comprehensive and informative breakdowns of the process behind a film that we have seen from the studio. Of course, given the uniqueness of the subject matter and the visual style with which it was executed, this may seem unsurprising.

We get the tales of how Cumberbatch was cast, against some serious odds in the form of competing schedules, how Derrickson scored the gig to direct and fulfil a childhood dream, and how other cast members ended up thrown into the mix. We also get discussions of the lengths to which the production went in capturing the visuals for the movie, from bleeding edge VFX techniques to physical recreation of huge parts of the world. The obvious love for Nepal in particular from all the cast and crew shines through, backed up by their insistence of returning there to film after the terrible earthquake of 2014.

The VFX and prop stuff is standard fare – you’ll be impressed by just how many different versions of the Eye of Agamotto and the Cape of Levitation were made – while the dedication to the craft of Cumberbatch, including doing as many of his own stunts as possible, is palpable both from his own contributions and the glowing admiration of all others involved. The score featurette, terrible pun title aside, is also interesting – Giacchino actively pursued this as the sort of Marvel film that would provide an opportunity for uniqueness and he’s run with it, producing one of the more distinctive scores in the MCU. This feature allows one to pick up on the different nuances of the score when re-watching the movie, without it becoming intrusive to the viewing experience. And as any MCU fan knows by now, when watching the Featurettes as a whole, make sure you stay until the end of the credits – there’s a creative use here which did give me a wry chuckle.

Elsewhere, we have a short Phase 3 ‘exclusive look’ which touches on where the franchise has come from, how Phase 3 will be a climactic part of the process and how excited they are for the new movies on the horizon. It’s nice to see Black Panther get a shout out here, but no mention of Captain Marvel seems a little odd. Nothing here will surprise any fan with an internet connection, but it’s worth five minutes of your time.

Team Thor: Part 2 continues the adventures of Thor living with an ordinary man while the Avengers fight amongst themselves. Hemsworth is funny, but this joke is starting to feel a little too stretched. The first of these was funny because it was different, now it just drags a little. I’m hoping there’s no Part 3 appended to a future home release.

The deleted scenes/parts of scenes – with the exception of the last one – add nothing to the movie (and in two cases actively detract from one character) and were best left on the cutting room floor. Completists will no doubt get a kick from watching them, but there’s nothing special here.

And then there’s the staple gag reel, with all of the actors variously gurning, dancing and mucking about between and during takes. Again, nothing we haven’t seen before as such, though they do give a feeling that the atmosphere on set was one of great fun amongst everyone, and dispel the impression Cumberbatch still carries from his Sherlock and theatre acting of being overly serious.

An option also exists on the disc to ‘play film with intro’ – it’s about a minute of Derrickson enthusing about how much he loves the character and how much he enjoyed bringing him to screen. Again, completists or Strange/Derrickson/both fans will get a kick, but everyone else misses nothing much by skipping. There is also an audio commentary by Derrickson for the movie, for those who really want to get into the meat and bones of how it was made scene by scene.

Verdict: One of the more stuffed home releases from MCU in terms of extras, and it feels deserving of the honour. Much of interest to even the casual MCU fan. The hardcore follower of the Sorcerer Supreme will find much to enjoy. 8/10

Greg D. Smith

Click here to read our interview with director Scott Derrickson