Morbius: Review Of The Vampire
Morbius arrives in theaters this Friday, April 1. With Moon Knight soaking up all the attention on Disney+, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness not being out until May, and not having Thor: Love and Thunder trailer to mull over yet, Sony has decided to finally release their entry into what is being called the “Sony Cinematic Universe” (which started with Venom in 2018) after two sets of reshoots and at least three pushback dates. Morbius is a good movie for those who are entering into superhero movies but not for those who have watched Venom and Venom 2 or for anyone who has watched the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You will be confused, confounded, and feel a little ripped off. The problem with Morbius is that Sony appears to want to keep doing their own thing but the overlords at Marvel/Disney had other plans. This results in a jumbled and confusing story with great visuals but no substance.
The movie is an origin story of a young genius with a rare blood disease, Michael Morbius, who believes that he has found a cure for his disease by injecting himself with the organs of vampire bats. Dr. Morbius does succeed in finding the cure but at what cost? Even though he is healed from his affliction, he must now devour blood in order to maintain his health or he will become a human-sized bat…or perhaps he gets his disease back? The movie is not fully clear on the consequences. We learn in the first 25 minutes of the movie that Michael Morbius is a humble man. While he is a certified genius, he prefers a solitary life and dedicates himself to trying to cure himself and his childhood friend Lucien aka Milo (surprisingly short background behind their relationship). If you think this is a large cast with many players, you are wrong. Other than the main villain Lucien, there is their childhood doctor (played by Jared Harris), a Dr. Martine who helps Morbius, and two FBI detectives investigating Morbius and his trail of blood. Not much more is built around them. It is difficult to feel the characters when we only know small snippets or one-off comments.
RELATED: Sony Drops Final 'Morbius' Trailer
The plot is easy to give as a non-spoiler because it is generic as it comes. A man grows powers through science. A friend/rival becomes jealous and inherits the same powers using the same science. There is a mix-up with the police. There is a fight followed by a character redemption/revelation. Then, we close with a final fight with an open-ended ambiguous ending. The movie clocks in at a brisk 90 minutes and it shows. We don’t get a lot of time to linger on one particular scene or plot development, which I think is one of the ultimate downfalls of this movie. In all the recent superhero movies, we have become used to the idea of 2.5- or 3-hour movies. It was a little jarring to see something so short. I have no doubt that some binding tissue was left on the cutting room floor and unlike the “Snyder Cut,” I wouldn’t mind seeing an extended version of this movie.
There are some good things about this movie. The visuals benefit from the extra time especially when Morbius switches to his “vampire vision” aka Echolocation. Seeing the world through waves is pretty neat, especially during his training montage with his new powers and throughout the entirety of the movie. However, as the fights become more robust, the director chooses to move in tight. Instead of seeing large-scale damage, you are only seeing things in a small frame with a lot of stuff moving around in the foreground and background. This loses some of its visual impacts, especially when viewed in IMAX.
Jared Leto was surprisingly good as the titular Dr. Michael Morbius. He brought certain frailty to his role when needed and carried himself well as a superhero at the appropriate time. Reports say that he fully immersed himself in the role and I think this saves some of the movie for me. I wouldn’t be upset if he returned to play the vampire again. Matt Smith as the main villain Lucien aka Milo was a delight. He absolutely chewed the scenery and appeared to be enjoying every minute of it. He would fit right in as a villain in the MCU or on Disney+. However, he was grounded too much and should have been left to go crazy like Nick Cage. When he was in his own vampire make-up, he looked like a zombie Roger Moore, which was a little unsettling at times.
Overall, the movie appears to have suffered from indecision from Sony about how they wanted to play this movie. Morbius has the potential to be on par with some of the MCU movies like Eternals, Thor: The Dark World, and maybe even Avengers: Age of Ultron if they punched up the gore and leaned into the horror aspect like the parallels to Dracula in this movie. You will probably see reviews that blame Marvel for the quality of the movie or that Disney grounded the movie. However, make no mistake, this jumbled mess should be solely on Sony’s shoulder. My only hope is that Sony will not let this deter them from continuing with their “Sony Cinematic Universe” because there is potential. The Spider-Man universe is rich with villains and anti-heroes that you could quietly go about your business and never worry about what Disney is doing. If you are hoping to scratch that itch until Doctor Strange, I would suggest that you go and rewatch the other MCU movies. If you are looking to kill some time for an hour and a half and feel like you want to be a part of the superhero craze, then go ahead, you’ll love it.
Just like the movies, there is a little stinger in this article. Make sure to stay after the credits for two clips that will tie us back to the Marvel universe. One makes some sense while the other makes zero sense. Tread lightly.
READ NEXT: Marvel Studios Set To Finally Bring Nova Into The MCU