TheRetroCritic

After stealing the Summer earlier this year with Captain America: Civil War, Marvel are back with a somewhat more experimental project as another classic character's origin story is crossed off the list. Benedict Cumberbatch takes on the role of Doctor Strange , the Master of the Mystic Arts. This was always going to be a challenge for Marvel as adding what is essentially a wizard to a vast superhero universe could go either way. Fans might call it jumping the shark, liken it to Harry Potter and dismiss it entirely. But for comic-book readers, Doctor Strange is a pretty important character who has always been closely linked to most of the heroes we've come to know and love in the movies so introducing him to the Avengers ' universe was a no-brainer and an exciting prospect. Dr. Stephen Strange is portrayed as a charming, very talented and extremely intelligent neurosurgeon whose vanity and arrogance almost kills him. After a devastating car crash, Strange's hands

The new film from increasingly impressive director Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave follows a free man's heartbreaking story as he is kidnapped and sold into slavery. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon Northup, whose personal account of what happened to him the movie was based on, and we sit there and chew on our popcorn guiltily as he is beaten, hanged, given cruel, impossible tasks and whipped over and over again. It's certainly a tough watch but how could it not be? That said, the idea that a man everyone tried desperately to rid of his humanity still managed to keep that and his dignity intact even after 12 years of hell is a quietly promising thought. After being beaten, dragged to New Orleans and given a random name, Paul Giamatti's soulless slave trader sells him to Benedict Cumberbatch's plantation owner. The latter immediately realises Northup's potential and even offers him a violin but, when things turn really sour as Paul Dano's petty, jealous worke