Movie Review: Morbius — Dial Down Your Expectations
The misfiring 'Morbius' at a certain point just stops firing, but not before it stops making sense.
The filmmakers and corporations behind Sony’s Marvel Comics adaptation Morbius (★☆☆☆☆) have had ample time to consider what they’re aiming for with this big-budget film intro for living vampire, and vintage Spider-Man nemesis, Dr. Michael Morbius.
Namely they should have figured out by now whether their version of the character — portrayed in astonishingly muted fashion by Oscar-winner and accent devourer Jared Leto — exists in any known Spider-Man film universe, or maybe one that’s merely Spidey-adjacent, à la Venom.
After half a decade and at least seven release date delays, moviegoers and Marvel fans (not mutually exclusive) also have had ample time to try to make sense of every hint in the marketing, and every detail of speculation.
But the murky, mundane origin story that director Daniel Espinosa and credited writing team Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless have come up with treats making sense more as a perk than a prerequisite, so dial down expectations accordingly.
Ultimately, Morbius is a setup — a long-winded prologue to some prospective later franchise entry, teased in the two underwhelming mid-credits sequences that will prolong this experience for many who would otherwise be ready to bolt by then.
Strangely enough, the movie checks out first, practically stopping on a dime following a listless showdown between super-vampire-powered Morbius and friend-turned-foe Milo, played by past and perennial Dr. Who, Matt Smith.
Smith and the effects team appear from what’s onscreen to be the ones to have really sunk their teeth into the material. The CGI wizards make abundant use of the scary-Bilbo effect, famous from Peter Jackson’s LOTR films, toggling between actors’ bare faces and fearsome flashes of fangs-baring bloodsuckers. And Morbius’ super-fast, super-agile moves are trailed by a dark mist resembling a cloud of bats, his spirit animal.
Supplying the only compelling lead performance, Smith’s Milo registers as his own special effect. Milo, real name Lucien, first meets Michael Morbius at a children’s hospital, where both sickly boys are being treated for a rare blood disease.
Morbius grows up to be a world-renowned hematologist, seen rejecting a Nobel Prize from the King and Queen of Sweden. Why does he show up to reject a Nobel Prize? Reasons. Where does adult Milo get the money to become the leading financial benefactor for Morbius’ Horizon Labs? Sorry, must have missed it.
At Horizon, Morbius works alongside colleague/girlfriend Dr. Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona) to seek a cure for the disease that’s slowly killing him and Milo. And, eureka, by fusing human blood with bat DNA, he discovers a cure, which leads to serious complications that will have Milo and Morbius at each other’s throats.
That’s about it for plot, which meanders forward unencumbered by emotional complexity or engaging subplots. Tyrese Gibson and Al Madrigal play two FBI agents who literally just show up at crime scenes throughout the movie, adding zero to the action or story.
Leto’s Morbius, supposedly driven beyond reasonable and ethical limits — when it’s time for human trials, he experiments on himself! — feels like he’s sleep-walking through his big debut. Drive is not this guy’s prevailing characteristic, nor romance with Arjona’s bland love interest, his prime mode for charming the audience. The slight touches of humor might be where the character most comes to life.
Often, otherwise, he’s just a pixelated figure flying past buildings. Actually, in one mid-credits scene, Leto and his scene partner look like they might have been Zoomed into their respective shots. Whatever it takes to open doors to more lucrative, cross-over universes, be they MCU, Venom-centered, X-related, or all of the above.
The brain trust behind this bust might have spent a lot of time thinking about how to bring together alternate superhero movie franchises, but they don’t seem to have put the same care and detailed attention into how this superhero movie was assembled.
Morbius is playing in theaters everywhere. Visit www.fandango.com.
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