It broke my heart, just a little, to see Wanda Maximoff become a villain. She's been through so much already....

Wanda, aka the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), is the nemesis of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) in Strange's second Marvel movie, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In the opening scenes, Strange helps to save a refugee from a parallel universe, America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), from a rampaging monster in Manhattan; she fell to this Earth along with the corporeal remains of another world's Doctor Strange, whose body plays an important part later in the film.

Strange, along with Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong), determines that a powerful force is trying to steal America's universe-jumping power, so Strange attempts to enlist the aid of Wanda, a talented witch and former Avenger who is seemingly retired after the events of her Disney+ miniseries, WandaVision. But no, it turns out that Wanda is the powerful force; she wants America's power so she can find a universe where her make-believe children are real so she can, presumably, murder her alter-ego there and take over as their mom. (For whatever reason, she doesn't spare a thought for her lost love, Vision, nor does she utilize the White Vision from the climax of WandaVision, but perhaps that's because the studio couldn't get Paul Bettany to make a few cameos.)

You also find out that Strange never got over his love for Dr. Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams), and she -- or, rather, the other Earth's version of her -- plays a big role here.

Multiverse of Madness is an entertaining rollercoaster of a film, but it is also something of a letdown. The weakest link, I think, is the hype that preceded it. I'm not sure any movie could have lived up to the anticipation that Disney built through an aggressive marketing campaign.

But the movie also squanders a lot of opportunities. The title promises a multiverse, but after a rapid montage of wacky alternate worlds, we spend quality time -- and meet intriguing characters -- on exactly one. (Sure, Dr. Strange does later have a mano-a-mano duel in another reality, but we don't see much there besides the blasted shell of Strange's mansion.)

In the one mirror universe we visit, we meet an exciting array of heroes, including Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell), a variant Captain Marvel (Lashana Lynch), Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) from the defunct X-Men movie franchise, Black Bolt (Anson Mount) from the much-criticized Inhumans TV miniseries and, perhaps most exciting of all, a new Reed Richards (John Krasinski) from the Fantastic Four. But, let's face it, we expected more -- different heroes, yes, but also alternate versions of the ones we already know. (Remember, we already met alternate Peter Parkers in the last Spider-Man outing, so we had good reason for high expectations.)

So yeah, maybe Tom Cruise was never going to be Iron Man, but we could have gotten something. The reality we got was a bit deflating, and made me wonder if perhaps a better title wouldn't have been Doctor Strange on Just One Other World.

While some familiarity with WandaVision is kind of necessary to understand the plot -- although her apparent redemption arc at the end was ignored entirely -- anticipated tie-ins with Spider-Man: No Way Home and the Loki miniseries never manifest in Multiverse of Madness.

And while I enjoyed some of the references that director Sam Raimi brought to the table, I feel like either he was reluctant to play too aggressively with Marvel's toys, or the studio didn't loosen his leash enough to really run free with his ideas. Cumberbatch and Olsen, both of whom have shown real depth in prior performances with these characters, are almost wooden this time around, like they weren't entirely sure where to go.

It's not a horror movie, although it is certainly darker than previous Marvel films, and there are even a few jump scares. Some of the deaths are unusually gruesome for Marvel, although not unduly gory.

Oh, and Zombie Strange is pretty cool to see -- for a minute or so -- but the rubber-faced look gets old pretty quickly. A Strange-vs-Strange fight looks awesome at first, but the musical aspects of the duel are a nifty concept that go on too long.

At the end of the day, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a pretty good film that wasted its potential and failed to meet the high expectations set for it. I truly wish they'd given us the multiverse they promised us.