So I saw Morbius today and….its…..ok for the most part. I’m not gonna be super in depth with this one as it’s pretty average at best. I don’t want to spoil anything about this movie, but I’m still going to cover everything as I can’t really talk about much without spoiling too much. The movie stars controversial actor musician Jared Leto as the titular Doctor Michael Morbius, a world famous doctor and medical scientist with a rare blood disease that lead to him taking an experimental cure that used Vampire bat DNA and fused it with his own. This causes him to become a vampire without any of the traditional vampire weaknesses. Leto’s performance is acceptable throughout the film. It’s not remarkable outside of the vampire form scenes. I’m a little iffy with his performance as it works, but there’s something missing from it. The film also stars Matt Smith as Milo, Michael’s surrogate brother who suffers from the same blood disease and so has joined him on his quest to cure the disaese. Smith is pretty good in this movie as he’s clearly having the most fun in his role. He hams it up at every opportunity and so is probably the most enjoyable character in the movie. Their chemistry is pretty good and I feel like the movie could have used more of it, especially more of the post serum relationship. Everyone else is serviceable and serve their roles well. I feel like the detectives really didn’t need to be there, even if they’re likely to be in later movies down the road. It’s a pretty standard origin movie fair, doesn’t reinvent the wheel and also doesn’t massacre anything. There are horror elements in the movie, but with the rating it doesn’t really do much with it. It’s also supposed to be a superpower anti-hero movie, but it also doesn’t do much with that at least until the later part of the movie when the villain comes around. It’s a bit Jekyll and Hyde but where they kind of become one by the end of the movie. Honestly to me this movie feels rushed. It doesn’t give time for things to breath, or give time for things outside of relationships to work their magic. It feels like it doesn’t know what it wants to be. It’s both a superhero action origin movie, and also a horror mystery movie. They really should have figured out how to make them work together better, or just focused on one or the other. As it is it feels rushed and kind of unfinished. Something I do like though are the visual effects for the fights, powers, and vampire forms. They look great and a great adaptation of the abilities in other mediums. I actually wish we got more of them because they were pretty cool and looked good. The effects teams did a really good job as they are effective and look pretty cool. The echolocation effects look pretty cool, and so do the gliding effects. i actually kind of like the way the show the speed of the characters, but there are some really weird and funny parts for that. The vampire forms are a good adaptation of the way Morbius looks in the comics, with the bat-like nose and the sunken in eyes and cheeks. I wish we got more of the vampire action in the movie as it was pretty good and cool, but it’s another aspect that feels rushed. There’s not a lot throughout the whole movie until the last 40 minutes or so when the villain comes around. Once he comes around there’s a bit but it’s not for long and it’s kind of boring since it ends so fast. It could have used a lot more. More action could have made it a more fun movie to watch. The music in the movie is ok, kind of has some pomp to it, but holy moly there are parts of it that were straight up from the Nolan Batman movies. I am not kidding you with this either. Its pretty close. Something else I don’t really mention are the graphics for the title sequences. They’re pretty good but the I feel like the ones in the end credits don’t really fit the movie. It’s kind of hard to describe as they’re pretty old school being mostly purple lines throughout the screen and letters. It’s a weird thing to talk about but I liked them in the beginning.
As another movie in the Sony Spider-man Universe without Spider-man in it, I kind of have to compare it to the Venom movies. They’re kind of similar but Morbius doesn’t have the benefit of the double main character that Venom has. I actually think it would have been better if it was more similar to Venom 2 as that had some good symbiotic action to balance it out and leaned into itself. Plus the final battle in that movie has some good length to it which Morbius could have used. They’re both like pre-MCU superhero movies, but Morbius is like that in a bad way to me.
Over-all its a serviceable movie that’s kind of disappointing as there’s something in here that could have made for a fun comic book adaptation. What we have is ok. I’d give it a thumb half up or to the side. If you see it in theatres do it on a Tuesday or matinee showing to save some money. Other than that wait for the digital release or it comes to streaming to watch it.
SPOILERS
Now for a spoiler discussion. I would have put this a bit earlier but I decided to put it down here just so that if people want to go in blind they can.
SO I’ll start the spoiler talk here. I like Milo as the villain as he kind of serves that dark mirror trope that comic books and comic movies just love to use. He chooses to take the serum and enjoys being vampire. He enjoys killing people and how it makes him feel. Once he becomes a vampire is when he really camps it up. And it works well for the movie to bring some fun into it. It sorely needs more to make it more interesting. They tried to make a little bit of a mystery but abandon it pretty fast. As I said earlier the detectives don’t do much in the movie and probably could have been cut out. Would have worked to make more time for some action. The final battle feels like it’s five minutes and nothing really happens in it. They fight a bit, Morbius is injured, Milo throws him from the building and they fall to a place underneath the city. Morbius gets up after summoning Vampire bats and uses them like a form of telekinesis to defeat Milo. That’s all that happens, even though they do foreshadow it earlier. The vulture credit scenes really don’t make sense to me. Like it really messes with what was established in No Way Home with the way the spell worked in the end of that movie. I’m surprised Marvel allowed for them to put that scene in as it does mess a bit with what was established. Especially that Vulture is somehow able to find and find out about modern Morbius AND make a whole new Vulture suit in this new universe he’s in. It’s just messy and weird….which I guess could describe this movie as a whole.
Andy's Thoughts 