“Dr. Strange: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About My Broken Hands and Learned to Love Interdimensional Magic.”

The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s 14th movie, “Doctor Strange,” is a trippy whirlwind of effects and charisma.

Created by comic book gurus Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1963, Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a neurosurgeon so skilled that he plays trivia games while operating.

Cumberbatch plays the doctor as so brilliant and arrogant that he borders on being unlikable early in the film. But it’s that aspect that makes Strange interesting and what makes his inevitable heroic destiny fun to watch. What would make this borderline jerk with a cabinet full of Rolexes want to give up his luxurious lifestyle to fight magic terrorists?

While driving one stormy night, Strange wrecks his exceptionally nice — even for a brain surgeon — sports car, leaving him with two busted, broken hands with extreme nerve damage. Hands so still they could effortlessly remove objects embedded in brainstems are now constantly shaking, like they belong to a rookie tasked with guarding LeBron James.

Unable to work and with his income depleted, Strange sets out to find a mysterious group in Nepal that he believes can cure him.

What he finds is an ancient order of monk-like wizards that defend the world from cosmic evils who just happen to be recruiting washed up former surgeons.

Those wizards are played by Tilda Swinton (”The Grand Budapest Hotel”) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (”12 Years a Slave”) and those cosmic evils are played by Mads Mikkelsen (NBC’s “Hannibal”). Taking into account Strange’s ex-girlfriend and co-worker, Christine (the regretfully underused Rachel McAdams), “Doctor Strange” is one Chris Evans away from being the best cast ever assembled for a Marvel movie.

The real star of the film may be the bizarre visual effects that seem to have been created by a department of Timothy Leary enthusiasts.

Director Scott Derrickson brings the Sorcerer Supreme’s talent for bending and distorting reality to the screen with scenes that make “Inception” look like a Richard Linklater film.

In one scene, New York City bends, and folds in on itself as wormholes open, revealing several more Manhattans in the distance. In another, Strange’s disembodied spirit is sent across the multiverse in a scene straight out of “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Derrickson is known for horror films like “Sinister” and “The Exorcism of Emily Rose,” but outside of the brutal car wreck scene, he leaves the shocks and scares at home.

Doctor Strange may not stack up against top-tier comic book fare like “The Dark Knight” or the “Captain America” movies, but it is a fresh take on the genre that, within the superhero origin story framework, finds a way to subvert audiences’ expectations (just dig that far-out climax, man).

Marvel seems to knock it out of the park when branching out. “Winter Soldier” was a political thriller disguised as a superhero movie and “Guardians of the Galaxy” showed that Marvel could make hit movies out of dollar-bin comic characters.

Doctor Strange is no household name now, but this movie seeks to change that. Equal parts “Batman Begins” and “The Matrix,” the movie is action-packed, has gravitas without being too dark, and it has a sentient magic cape.

What other comic book movies have that?

Oh, well, “Spawn,” I guess. “Spawn” had that.


‘Doctor Strange’

Now playing: Maya Salinas 14; Century 14


Film facts: Stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Mads Mikkelsen, Tilda Swinton. Directed by Scott Derrickson. 115 minutes.

BOTTOM LINE: This comic book movie is action-packed, has gravitas without being too dark and is a trippy whirlwind of effects and charisma with star Benedict Cumberbatch.

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