Watched Doctor Strange the other day. Enjoyable enough.

The geometric, kalidoscopic special effects reminded me a lot of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Neat, but extraneous. For me, The Matrix remains the master class on bent reality improving every aspect of a film.

The character journey for the doctor is to start as an arrogant (though well-meaning), selfish genius and end as a person who puts his talents toward non-selfish ends. “It’s not about him.”

For some reason, this just didn’t have the emotional impact the plot suggests it should. The doctor gains insight, but the result is a clever solution to the film’s major threat. The doctor will help others on a much wider scale than before, sure, but that kind of helping never seemed to be his primary motivation in the first place. His new mission seems, ultimately, impersonal.

In Captain America, Steve Rogers starts out idealistic, well-meaning, and generally concerned for others but has no means to act. He’s given those means (the super serum) and the rest of the movie is him dealing with how complicated it is to do the right thing — to be the person he’s always been — due to the bureaucratic and complex milieu in which he lives. (Mirrors how we all move from idealistic youth to a more nuanced adulthood.) His idealism is tempered by damned-if-you-do-or-don’t reality, but it’s still there and you love him for it.

Tempered arrogance is not nearly as engaging as tempered idealism. Perhaps that’s why animé is so appealing. The innocent is helped by the arrogant cool-guy’s skill, while the cool-guy is reminded that his skills are empty without the purpose the innocent provides.