From what I have read online, an important aspect of magic that is usually overlooked is the source of magic. Where it comes from and how does it get used by its users?
The lengthy "article" I posted on this thread earlier further elaborated on the nature of magic in fiction:
"Some of the best games out there make sure to include the source of magic, and it instantly turns most of them into a classic. Demonic, nature, holy, chakra, the soul stream, whatever is the source, it's a great place to start the planning, since it will heavily intertwine with the theme. Soft magic doesn't have to worry about the source, since it's supposed to be mysterious, but hard magic for sure should have one set, especially if there are different classes or schools of magic. I would say the most important part for soft magic would be how the magic aligns with the plot and theme fable wise.
For example, in Greek mythology, there's a lot of soft magic at hand, and most of it comes from the gods or a certain event. The idea should be that those gods or events had a hand at helping the hero, and so the gods or events are sort of a source, in an indirect way. Like Ariadne's thread. It's not important how she made or what it's made of, it's important that she is the one who gave it, because she's the one who's supposed to help Theseus escape the labyrinth. So for soft magic, the reason why it happens trumps the source it comes from."
Doctor Strange is in a unique position because I think the movies did a pretty good job of describing the SOURCE of his magic. So it's kinda "hard". To be honest, I don't think his magic is THAT mysterious to me. It looks cool and is really VERSATILE, but I don't really get the same sense of wonder and enchantment that came from the magic of the Silmarillion, you know? In my experience, magic is by its very nature more "enchanting" when it is written about in the distant past. Since Stephen lives in the 21st century, his kind of magic wouldn't feel like the magic from the Sword and the Stone. I still like it, though.
And I agree with DigiCom about the "spectrum" between hard and soft magic. They can be blended (I wouldn't mind seeing that in the MoM). Here are some other quotes from that fantasy discussion which I referred to earlier:
"Oh no, hard magic vs. soft magic is definitely not an either/or situation—you can have something in the middle or you can have a story with different kinds of magic in it, some being harder and some being softer. This is why with soft magic, it's better to have the magic more in the background rather than something the main characters frequently use to solve problems. It's also better when it's not something that's commonplace. I think A Song of Ice and Fire is a really good example of a softer system of magic: you never quite get the exact mechanics of how everything works, it's rare, and it usually causes more problems than it solves."
I'm actually VERY curious to see how OFTEN magic is used in Strange 2. I also want to apologize for boring Clea and GenericUsername with these discussions about soft and hard magic. It's clear that they find them to be extremely TEDIOUS.