As a huge Marvel comics and Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) fan, I recently went to see Morbius. To all you other loyal fans out there, I’m sorry to say: it sucked.
The character Morbius was first introduced in the comics as a villain – a terrifying, straight-out-of-a-horror-film villain – who fought against Spider-Man and Blade.
Then Morbius eventually became an antihero in his own comic series, which is what the film adaptation clearly was inspired by, but the Morbius on screen, played by Jared Leto, wasn’t nearly flawed enough to be classified as an antihero. Morbius had a conscious almost straight after he transitioned into a ‘vampire’ – there was no interesting internal struggle – and desperately didn’t want to hurt people; in fact, he went out of his way to save them.
However, with that being said, Morbius wasn’t interesting or ‘good’ enough to be considered a hero; he killed some people when he first transitioned and happily broke the law to try his experimental serum in the first place. So we were left with a bit of a fence-sitting situation…
The plot of Morbius was tediously predictable. I could see the ‘plot twist’ ending from a mile away. And while most movies these days are predictable, Morbius really didn’t have much else to keep me entertained.
Only one of the characters was likeable – and no, it wasn’t the titular character – and this character was the film’s only saving grace; Milo played by Matt Smith. Smith had several scenes where he was clearly having fun with his role and I wish the Doctor Who actor had more screen time as his performance was playful yet dark and overall, just enjoyable to watch.
The final battle with Morbius and the film’s villain (which I won’t spoil, although, if you’re like me, you’ll figure out who the villain is a solid twenty minutes before it’s dramatically revealed) was anti-climatic. A few punches, a whole lot of bats flying around and a stab to the heart; the whole fight was over in a matter of minutes and was the opposite of enthralling.
Oh, and it really bothered me that for the majority of the film Morbius tied his long hair up but before heading to the final battle he decided to let his locks fly; which, as someone with long hair, is just not practical!
The only part of the film that actively engaged and excited me was the first post-credits scene as it again tied Sony’s Marvel universe with the MCU (the first tie was Tom Hardy’s appearance as Venom in the MCU’s Spider-Man: No Way Home), and I’m now intrigued to see what will happen in the future with Sony’s Marvel franchise and whether it’ll just finally combine with the MCU’s.
Overall, Morbius wasn’t a bad film; it was just a tad boring and cliched. It felt like a vampire movie I’ve seen multiple times before, and I have to admit, Leto’s performance reminded me of Robert Pattinson’s Edward Cullen from Twilight. I think Morbius would have suffered better if they had leaned into the horror genre and made Morbius and the film’s villain completely and utterly bone-chilling.
If you’re a fan of Marvel or the vampire genre, you’ll enjoy Morbius; but only if you don’t go in with high expectations as I can only give the film a 4.5/10.
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