The Venom movie made sense. This is a highly recognizable character that can be interesting even when Spider-Man isn’t present in his story. That film was a disaster, but the idea had potential. On the contrary, the idea of bringing Morbius to the movies wasn’t that interesting. We couldn’t figure out what they could do with “the living vampire” from the Spider-Man comics to justify a cinematic work.
The people behind this film couldn’t figure it out either.
Doctor Michael Morbius is a genius scientist suffering from a rare blood disease. In his desperation to find a cure, he begins to conduct experiments combining human DNA with that of vampire bats. His discovery not only cures his disease, but gives him great powers. But it also curses him with an irresistible thirst for human blood.
Although the advertising tries to present Morbius as a superhero movie with a vampire, it is nothing more than the typical “man tormented because he became a monster” story who must fight his urge to kill in order to feed. This is a terribly common concept in the genre and this work does nothing to differentiate itself from other films that use it. In fact, it is one of the most boring and repetitive vampire stories we have suffered through in recent years.
Indepth Morbius Plot
The characters are very poorly defined. The main character changes personality and mood from scene to scene and his motivations feel like mere excuses for the plot. Although reports say that Jared Leto is an unbearable person on film sets, the truth is that he is a talented actor. But no amount of talent can make a cliché-driven character interesting. Adria Arjona is even worse in the role of an absolutely disposable romantic interest, unnecessary and with less personality than the most generic of damsels in distress.
The only character that managed to entertain us a bit was the villain played by Matt Smith. Milo is nothing more than the “obligatory contrast” to the protagonist. He is a vampire just like Morbius, but who does enjoy killing. His name and sudden evilness have a very silly undertone and it’s clear that they never really defined what his personality was supposed to be. Matt Smith simply has fun making Milo as absurd as possible. We feel the film suggests a romantic attraction from him to the protagonist – perhaps inspired by the ‘fandom’ that grew out of Eddie and Venom‘s relationship – but never really commits to that idea.
Tyrese Gibson – Roman in the Fast and Furious movies – is also around. If you were excited to see him with the robotic arm he showed in some of the trailers, give up on that idea. Those scenes were cut and now he’s just another one of many filler characters.
Speaking of cut scenes, you can tell they “scissored” this movie too much. The second half of Morbius jumps around and you feel the lack of cutscenes explaining how the characters got from one place to another or the logic behind their actions. We don’t think restoring these scenes will result in a better film, but a slightly more consistent one.
The special effects are also mediocre. The vampire face transformations look no better than what was seen in Buffy the Vampire Slayer 25 years ago – they even look like the result of an Instagram filter! The swift movements of the characters are accentuated with a sort of “smoke” that looks flashy the first time we see it, but quickly ceases to be interesting. The action scenes are nothing special.
These are directly inspired by the events of Without a Way Home, but they give more embarrassment than excitement. Not only did they ruin the surprise in the trailers, but they lack logical sense within the world of Morbius.
We can’t find much reason to recommend this movie. If you’re a fan of Jared Leto or Matt Smith you might find it a little funny, but that’s the only excuse we can think of for wanting to run to the theaters to see it. Its characters are unfunny, there’s no originality in its plot, and its ties to the Marvel cinematic multiverse are barely relevant. It’s nothing more than a crude collection of vampire and superhero movie clichés that don’t go together well at all.
