A chopper glides through the misty Costa Rican forests, landing on a distant ledge in "Morbius." You'd be hard-pressed to sense the opening scene's intended darkness as the camera cranes through a murky CGI-drenched tunnel. It's no secret that today's movies, particularly those based on comic books, rely heavily on visual effects to carry the emotional weight.
The worn novelty of villains starring in their own sympathetic origin stories delivers few surprises after "Venom," "Joker," and so on. As Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto), a moody researcher suffering from a blood ailment, sways with crutches as he exits the chopper, the mystery surrounding his story is moot. We've seen this film before, in considerably superior versions.
The nadir of comic book cinema is Daniel Espinosa's "Morbius," a misguided, artistically worthless attempt by writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless to fuse a gothic horror edge to the MCU. The titular villain, sometimes anti-hero, was created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane and first appeared in the pages of "The Amazing Spider-Man" in 1971, imbuing the webslinger's reality with a supernatural grit. On the surface, infusing Morbius into the MCU's sterile, all-too-clean confines should achieve similar results. Unfortunately, Espinosa is so enslaved to the timbre of mass entertainment that he struggles to give his film the bloodlust, savagery, and frights it requires to climb above a snore.
Morbius Full Review
In "Morbius," the cleaning begins with a flashback to 25 years previously. Morbius befriends Milo, a little kid who, like Morbius, is plagued with a blood illness that necessitates three transfusions per day to survive. They see themselves as two shattered people trying to survive in a harsh world. Dr. Nichols (a criminally underused Jared Harris), the head of the facility where they are being treated, notices Morbius' innate gift for mechanics and sends him to a place where his talents will not be wasted, it's a cloying ableist angle, barely dealt with by the haphazard script, made worse when Morbius' innate gift for mechanics is noticed and sent to a place where his talents will not be wasted.
Unlike other long-running comic book films, Espinosa's film has a short running duration of 108 minutes. However, as critic Roger Ebert wisely put it, "No excellent movie is too long, and no poor movie is short enough." Morbius is a member of the latter group.
For example, the movie goes to considerable measures in the beginning to establish a romance between Morbius and the devoted Dr. Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona). She staunchly backs Morbius, who is now a Nobel Laureate for developing artificial blood, by supporting him in his unethical experiments. He creates a serum by fusing human and bat DNA and accidentally transforms into a dhampir when he tests it on himself. He can walk without crutches now that he has extraordinary strength. He also develops sonic hearing, the ability to float in the air, and the ability to speak with bats. The issue is that he needs blood every few hours or he will revert to his previous state.
This film is likewise lacking in depth. It's representative of a system that prioritises amusement park awe over solid storytelling. It's no surprise that the picture wraps relatively abruptly with two post-credit scenes building up a sequel. Was this a genuine film or merely a shoddy vehicle for future franchises? The fact that the question needs to be answered speaks something about the status of Hollywood blockbusters today, as well as the poor quality of "Morbius."
