Being fair, Strange’s reaction time and speed of fighting is far higher than that of normal humans. Wolverine can’t blitz him (and he’s good enough to duke it out with Logan), he directs his cloak to snatch a thrown knife out of the air (Comic Strange must mentally control the Cloak’s actions, it isn’t an independent entity), etc.

But I agree that a half second isn’t enough to get his REALLY good stuff going.