I thought that Sony had reached their low point with the Venom franchise. However, Morbius managed to prove me wrong by quickly becoming one of the most uninspired, bland comic-book films ever made. It was made evident to me that the cash-obsessed producers at Sony had no interest in exploring the character of Michael Morbius and were unable to tell an effective story without trying to shoe-horn in Spider-Man or set up future IP’s.
After being diagnosed with a lifelong blood disease, Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) searches for a cure for his disease. When he discovers the cure, he accidentally turns himself into a living vampire- including a taste for blood.
Before I dive into the negatives of the film (because there is a lot of them), I’m going to start with the one semi-decent aspect of the film. Matt Smith. The Doctor himself plays the antagonist of the film. Smith clearly has a lot of fun with his performance. Whether or not he is aware of how bad the film he was making is or not is another discussion…
Whilst I wouldn’t exactly call Leto’s performance as the titular character bad, I also don’t have anything good to say about it either. Much like the rest of the film, he was an easily forgettable protagonist that didn’t seem to have any interesting traits that genuinely made me care for the character.
There was also a shockingly boring performance from Adria Arjona (Dr. Martine Bancroft). The concept of her character having some kind of romantic interest in Morbius during the second act could not have been anymore random and out of the blue as it was. There was absolutely no build up or foreshadowing beforehand which just makes the reveal even worse. There were also two detective characters who felt like clueless idiots that had no real place in the story.
Whilst my hopes weren’t through the roof for this film, I had hoped the film was going to look good. I was very disappointed with this. There is a lack of colour and general attractiveness present in the film which compliments the dull tone. I also was not a fan of the way the (poorly put together) CGI was used- especially in the character design. Morbius in his ‘vampire’ form was so ugly to look at, and I cannot decide whether this is purposeful or not.
Another visually lacking department is the action. Much like Venom, the film has extremely hazy, computer generated fight scenes that just end up being extremely messy. I was slightly looking forward to seeing Morbius fly; but even that was shrouded in bats and this strange echo-location effect were used.
My final point of nasty criticism for this film is the plot. Or rather, the extreme lack of any notable plot. The whole film seems undefined in any interesting plot points, and seems to cave in on itself by the end. Not to mention how non-sensical the end credits scenes are (as a nerd and a critic!).
Whilst you could primarily blame the poor quality on the pandemic’s interruption, or the SIX times the film has been delayed, Morbius is undoubtedly a bad film. Even for the most die-hard Marvel fans, this one might not be worth checking out…
My score- 2/10
