Photo from @MorbiusMovie Twitter
Morbius is the newest villain origin movie in the Sony/Marvel Spider-Man universe. It stars Jared Leto as Doctor Michael Morbius, a doctor with a deadly illness that causes him to need constant blood transfusions to survive. Morbius has been in search of a cure for his illness to save himself and his friend Mylo played by Matt Smith who happens to have the same illness. His research leads him to experiment with bats, and a risky experiment cures his illness but at a price. He has turned into a part vampire. The film is a race against time for Morbius to save himself before he becomes a monster.
In terms of the story, it felt very weak to me. The way the story develops is simple and predictable and doesn’t leave a lasting impact. It is tough to describe why that is without spoiling plot points. But, the film fails to give you the feeling that there are truly any stakes on the line. The whole plot behind Morbius’ transformation is also very strange and confusing. The biggest low point of storytelling came in the post-credit scene which made no absolute sense. The scene completely ignores events that have played out in the cinematic universe in previous films. It seems to have rewritten important events that at one point connected the overall arc. You will have to see the movie to understand fully what I mean, but this was a giant missed opportunity.
The acting in this movie was one of the only saving graces. Matt Smith is stellar as Morbius’ friend Mylo. He brings a performance that is as witty as his Doctor Who days but with a darker edge. Other standout performances on the acting side include Jared Harris as Emil Nikols and Adria Arjona as Martine Bancroft. Tyrese Gibson and Al Madrigal also provide a disappointing performance as the two agents involved in investigating the movie’s events.
One of the lowest points of this film was the CGI. Not only was the film not held to the standards of current-day superhero CGI, but there was way too much CGI used as well. You could not have a single fight scene in the film without there being an abundance of CGI drowning out the scene and making it look incredibly fake. A mixture of motion capture and real choreography would have made fight scenes feel more real, but instead, the movie looked like I was watching a video game cutscene. Unfortunately, this led to one of the worst final fight scenes in recent memory. It was unfortunate as the scene could have been visually stunning and a memorable high point.
The cinematography was also quite basic as there weren’t too many advanced shots that added to scenes. This is something that would not appear to be as much of a problem if movies like ‘The Batman’ did not come out recently. The basic shots make the film look like something that was meant to be a ‘straight to tv’ or ‘streaming service exclusive’.
Overall, Morbius was a missed opportunity to bring in an interesting new character to the Sony Spider-verse with a bang. The film will likely end up a sore spot that Sony will have to heal and improve over time in future projects. It seems Sony has some form of plan in store for us, here is hoping this low point was simply a fluke.
Rating: 4/10
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