Marvel has rolled out another fantastic movie with Dr. Strange. Describing the film to my friends has been a difficult task. The best I have been able to do is by saying take the movie Inception, add in a Thor film and an Escher painting and you’ll get Dr. Strange. The movie is a lot like the title character’s name, strange.
Before I get into if the movie is appropriate for kids or not, I’ll add my two cents on what I thought of the movie.
The performances in the movie are great, as one would expect from Benedict Cumberpatch, Tilda Swinton, Mads Mikkelsen, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The actors raised the bar for acting in a superhero film. The effects are the best I have seen. Cities twist and turn and other dimensions open up in story-telling glory. If I were a movie critic, my rating would be high.
Now for the reason you are reading this post:
Is Dr. Strange appropriate for kids?
There are many intense fights scenes. A few curse words and sex is limited to a couple of innuendos at the start of the movie. The biggest area younger viewers might struggle with are scary scenes with Dormmamu, a huge alien-like head that confronts Dr .Strange at the end of the movie.
My 12-year-old was fine to watch everything. I checked on my 10-year-old throughout the movie and she shielded her eyes during the final battle scene with the huge alien head.
So in a nutshell:
Sex: A few innuendos at the beginning of the movie.
Violence: A lot of intense fight scenes and many scenes of death and cities being destroyed. If your kid watched Avengers: Age of Ultron, they’ll probably be fine with the violence in Dr. Strange.
Profanity: A couple of words, such as a-hole and Shit. Again, similar to the Avengers movies.
Scary Scenes: If your kids are frightened by Red Skull in Captain America, then they might be scared by Dormmamu.
Like I said, my kids saw the movie and were fine. I would not have let my 10-year-old watch Dr. Strange last year though. Ten and up I think is fine for the movie IF they are okay with the other Marvel films.
Dr. Strange is rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and action throughout, and an intense crash sequence.