Anchors (Out of Four): The holiday blockbuster season kicks off with a psychedelic bang as Marvel Studios, along with director Scott Derrickson (“Sinister,” “The Day the Earth Stood Still”), bring us season 3, episode 2 of their near decade spanning experiment they like to call the “Marvel Cinematic Universe.”

2016 was a hit-and-miss year for superhero movies, to say the least. First, we got the quasi-satirical genre subversion that was February’s “Deadpool,” which was a whole lot of fun but barely qualified. Next up was another entry into Marvel’s media empire, “Captain America: Civil War,” a great summer movie that overwhelmed you with its spectacle and ensemble cast. After that it was the mediocre “X-Men: Apocalypse,” followed by the still-even-more mediocre “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” and finally finishing with the angst-ridden fever dream/train wreck that was “Suicide Squad.”

So, with super powered blockbusters coming to screens a dime a dozen, with more than a couple duds to show for it, we’ve had a series of bloggers and would-be critics writing think pieces about what they like to call “superhero fatigue.” Eight years after “Iron Man” came to screens, are we finally getting tired of it all?

Box office numbers don’t particularly show it, and with movies like “Doctor Strange,” Marvel, for their part, show why they still can do no wrong when it comes to this genre. All we want is something a little different, and we definitely got it with this film.

We begin with a Harry Potter-esque magic battle in the streets of London that leaves us with more questions than answers before we move to Manhattan to follow our protagonist, renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), who shows us his skills and his lifestyle before almost immediately getting into a life changing accident. This is our premise: a surgeon without the use of his hands who seeks out a cure and discovers a new ability. On paper, it’s not a very original story, and Strange, for his part, is one of the most unlikeable heroes we’ve seen from Marvel. “Doctor Strange” succeeds, however, because of its ability to literally and figuratively turn itself upside down.

We begin to relate to Strange to a greater and greater extent as we journey with him deeper down the rabbit hole he unwittingly enters, into a world that makes me wish I opted to see the film in 3D (a claim I don’t make lightly, as I realize it’s fairly controversial). In the comic world, Dr. Strange first comes on the scene in 1963, and Marvel embraces the mind-bendingly surreal environment that writer Steve Ditko gave the world after what I assume was a particularly “far out” acid trip. Time loops, multiverses, ghost fights, and magical portals enchant the viewer without devolving into the morass of continually increasing destruction and mayhem that many blockbusters have thrown at audiences in the past years.

In this sense, “Doctor Strange,” like 2015’s “Ant-Man” before it, was a risk because it gave us an unfamiliar character with an odd background, but it succeeds because it gives us something different and quirky while still maintaining Marvel’s trademark humor and slick style. As usual, we also get a fairly generic villain but a colorful supporting cast, including Chiwetel Ejiofor as Strange’s mentor-turned-partner Mordo. And, of course, we get our healthy number of “Avengers” references just to tie this movie in together with all the others.

So, “Doctor Strange” isn’t groundbreaking, but it definitely brings something new to the table, and by virtue of the fact that it also happens to be a very fun and well-made film in a conventional sense, that’s enough to snap us out of any concerns we ought to have had about the state of the genre after its most recent entries.

Stephen Strange isn’t the first wizard to settle down in Greenwich Village (it would be criminal, after all to forget about Nicholas Cage in 2010’s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”), but he’s nonetheless a welcome addition to the neighborhood, and to Marvel’s world. I have no doubt we’ll be heading back into his bizarre world, and I look forward to it.

Verdict: Two anchors down. Even if you’re not a diehard Marvel fan, this movie is fun enough to draw even casual viewers into the fold. Catch it in 3D in theaters and you won’t be disappointed.