Sony Pictures released a teaser trailer for Morbius in January 2020 that promised a vampire superhero thriller with Spider-Man graffiti on the wall, Tyrese Gibson portraying a detective with a technologically upgraded arm, and our protagonist coming face to face with Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) from Spider-Man: Homecoming. All of this intriguing action was set to the tune of Beethoven’s “Für Elise,” which heightened the excitement of fans. Unfortunately, in the two years it took to get this film released, Morbius has broken so many of its initial promises that the final product is unrecognizable, with anything close to a creative vision replaced by studio interference that is designed to ready you for superior future films.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is generally consistent in the quality of its films and the volume of its impact. However, Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, which began with Venom in 2018, feels increasingly like a poor attempt to ride the coattails of the MCU’s success, using the characters they own to create half-baked movies you’ll see due to the hype surrounding Spider-Man: No Way Home. While the two Venom films are fun, breezy pieces of entertainment that don’t take themselves seriously. Unfortunately, much like its leading man, Morbius takes everything way too seriously, resulting in a generic, uninteresting take on the superhero genre.
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The film stars Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, a scientist with a rare blood disease. We learn about his disability and how he met his surrogate brother Milo Morbius (Matt Smith) through flashbacks from their childhood. Unfortunately, the flashbacks are strangely edited, with two scenes poorly cut together. As a result, there is not enough time to build a genuine friendship, with the flashbacks feeling as if they were initially longer, but much of the footage ended up on the cutting room floor.
The film follows Michael as he attempts to create a cure for himself and Milo, but this ultimately leads to disastrous, predictable consequences. It’s easy to foresee the journeys of every character in this story as the film is generally free of surprises despite its best efforts. Unfortunately, once Michael undergoes the transformation and develops superhuman abilities, his goal becomes fuzzy, and the story becomes aimless and poorly paced. The thin storyline surrounding Michael’s loved ones being put in danger is overly familiar, not putting a fresh take on anything we have already seen done better.
Furthermore, the screenplay from writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless is entirely uninterested in delving into its characters beyond the surface level. Leto gives a moderately compelling performance as Michael, but his character is not very interesting on the page. Smith gets to chew up the scenery and command the screen as Milo, and he is the most morally fascinating character in the film. However, Milo’s relationship with Michael and his motivation to do what he does never amounts to anything worthwhile, with a one-note conflict and a poor attempt at giving him an emotional center.
Adria Arjona’s portrayal of Martine Bancroft is one of the most severely underwritten aspects of the film. She has very little to do before becoming Michael’s love interest in a scene that comes out of nowhere, given how little chemistry they shared early in the film. In addition, as mentioned earlier, the movie brings in Fast & Furious star Tyrese Gibson as Simon Stroud, a character previously advertised with a high-tech arm that Gibson championed in a 2020 Maxim interview. However, this weapons-grade arm has been entirely removed from the final film. This change removes anything potentially interesting about the one-dimensional cop character and demonstrates how much this film was mangled in postproduction.
After an underwhelming final battle that feels low-stakes due to its reliance on CGI, the superhero flick dares to give us not one but two mid-credits scenes. Despite how it appeared in the trailer, Adrian Toomes has nothing to do with the entire story, only arriving at the very end for a sloppy connection to Spider-Man: No Way Home that barely makes any semblance of sense. It’s evident what Sony is trying to set up with the mid-credits scenes, but if their execution of that idea resembles anything like the product we got here, Sony’s Spider-Man Universe could be in serious trouble.
Director Daniel Espinosa was clearly trying with this movie and some of that initial promise survives the changes by the studio. As with any vampire film, there are some horror elements, and these sequences are decent. There are other small highlights, such as the visual effects that surround Morbius while flying, which winds up being the most unique quality this movie has. However, the nonsensical writing and Esperanza’s failure to helm a memorable action sequence is what stops the film from being anything worth watching. Coming off the heels of superhero masterpieces such as Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Batman, Morbius is a movie you might stumble across on cable TV and play in the background as you do your household chores rather than appointment viewing.
SCORE: 4/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 4 equates to “Poor.” The negatives overweigh the positive aspects making it a struggle to get through.
