How Everything Everywhere All at Once Beat Doctor Strange 2 to Become 2022’s Best Multiverse Movie
The multiverse is one of the most popular concepts in Hollywood right now. With the next Flash movie, DC is focusing on many realms, whereas the Marvel Cinematic Universe is now unraveling the mind-bending Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It’s not only confined to superhero movies: Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) explores parallel realities in order to stop her tyrannical daughter in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
It’s difficult to ignore the sense of originality and imagination that pervades every part of Everything Everywhere All at Once. The film revels in its off-the-wall and absurdist aesthetic, from the premise and message to the style and narrative. With nearly $50 million in the bank in its ninth weekend of play, the martial arts fantasy will become A24’s highest-grossing domestic film. And with this, it has surpassed the multiverse magic of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in its unique way.
Everything Everywhere All at Once is Realistic
The narrative is difficult to describe since it takes place in the parallel universes of Evelyn (Yeoh), a laundromat owner in a troubled marriage who has problems bonding with her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu). The tone shifts from darkly humorous to overtly emotional (touching all points in between). Despite scenes involving sentient rocks and spectacular martial arts routines, it’s also a deeply emotional picture. The story revolves around the gap in understanding between first- and second-generation Asian-Americans. ADHD manifests itself in the flitting from place to place, tone to tone, and dimension to dimension.
Even to audiences without a similar cultural background, the more precise and realistic the details, the more genuine and accessible a film may appear. This movie taps into universal experiences of loneliness and parental estrangement by delving into the specifics of Evelyn’s life, such as her apprehension about hosting her visiting father (James Hong) because she suspects he’ll be uncomfortable with Joy’s relationship with another woman, or the cramped apartment filled with Chinese decorations she lives in above her place of business.
It surpasses the charm of Doctor Strange 2
For a film as unique as Everything Everywhere All at Once, there are no clear comparisons. The absurdity of the settings it portrays, whether it’s a world where everyone has hotdogs for hands or a world where a raccoon puppeteers a hibachi chef, defies any such parallels. The film acquired a depth of emotional effect considerably beyond that of Multiverse of Madness, despite having a far lower budget, cast, and marketing effort. Despite its ambition and multiverse-spanning wackiness, Everything Everywhere All at Once preserves the story’s essential emotional impact at its heart, and the repercussions are both heartbreaking and amusing.
That isn’t to imply that Multiverse of Madness isn’t emotionally satisfying. Wanda Maximoff’s quest, which builds on her character development in WandaVision, has its own catastrophic consequences. But none of it truly reaches the heights or dives to the depths that this A24 masterpiece demonstrated to be capable of. In the back-and-forth between their attributes, the two films provide intriguing comparison points, but as much of a cultural powerhouse as Marvel is, there is just no contending with A24’s underdog appeal.
