Sigh! Sony, why do you keep hurting yourself like this? You already have a good thing going for you with your “Spider-Verse” animated series. Sometimes, it seems film studios don’t know what’s best for them.
To be fair, Sony’s “Venom” franchise has been financially successful despite reviews that have generally been unkind, though this could be attributed to Tom Hardy’s investment in his alien symbiote character.
But then it releases trash like “Morbius” – a movie nobody asked or cares for and, in all likelihood, a character no one has even heard of. Still, perhaps every “superhero” film deserves a chance to prove itself.
As the trailers may have spoiled, Morbius is an anti-hero character like Venom. Only instead of being a human host for an alien symbiote, he is a vampire.
And how did he become one? Oh, the usual: crazy science experiments gone wrong, and all that.
Michael Morbius, played by Jared Leto, is a genius doctor seeking a cure for the debilitating blood condition he suffers from. He turns to vampire bats, splicing his own DNA with theirs, which seems to do the trick – but it comes with that pesky side effect of turning him into a vampire.
With an excess of superhero films out there, it’s important for each new entry to make itself stand out. In this case, it seems the filmmakers decided not to even try.
A vampire superhero has the potential of being a tremendously interesting character, but the writing certainly drops the ball here. Morbius has supernatural strength and speed! And echolocation, that nifty trick of finding your way around using sound waves! And… he drinks blood!
But that’s really all there is to him.
He doesn’t even fly – he glides, like a flying squirrel more than a bat. (Unfortunately, it’s not clear if he also has the traditional vampiric weaknesses; scaring him away with the power of garlic bread would have been quite the sight.)
Weak leads
The movie certainly isn’t improved by a lead actor who seems ill-fitted for the part. While Leto has done good work in his previous roles, this is not one of them.
And honestly, after his disastrous performance as the Joker in DC’s “Suicide Squad”, he ought to consider steering clear of comic-book characters altogether.
The quality of a movie hinges on the screen presence of the protagonist. If they are not interesting, why should the audience care about them or what happens?
Leto has more than enough screen time but does not have much in terms of character. In fact, most of his traits are revealed through lazy exposition.
“Show, don’t tell” is an important rule of screenwriting. In “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, you didn’t need to be told Peter Parker is a selfless and kindhearted hero; his actions proved it. Let the audience learn about the character through visuals and onscreen goings-on, not talk.
At points, “Morbius” seems to be rushing to be over and done with. In the beginning, through flashback, the audience is introduced to a certain character who meets with a young Morbius. Less than five minutes later, they are apparently best friends.
Where did that come from? There was barely any interaction between the two. The film doesn’t bother showing how and why their friendship developed, and that, there, is one of its damning flaws: if relationships between characters are boring, why should viewers care?
In fact, why watch this film at all? Well, you get to see Matt Smith shirtless, so there’s some eye-candy there. And if you’re a fan of Netflix’s “The Crown”, you can see Smith confronting Jared Harris, aka Prince Phillip’s father-in-law King George VI. That’s something, no?
And oh yeah – Michael Keaton shows up as the Vulture from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What does this mean for the future? Who knows? But Keaton sure loves his bats, doesn’t he?
‘Morbius’ is playing in cinemas nationwide.