Is Morbius a hero or a villain?
Is the movie a vampire horror film, or a superhero movie with fangs?
And most importantly, is it any good?
These are the 6 best and 6 worst things about "Morbius."
On paper, Jared Leto's Michael Morbius is a pretty compelling character.
Suffering from a rare and usually fatal blood disease since birth, he becomes one of the
world's leading experts on artificial blood and is even awarded a Nobel prize for his
efforts.
"You need a doctor?"
"I am a doctor."
Morbius eventually attempts to cure his condition by splicing his own DNA with that of vampire
bats, causing him to develop a number of supernatural abilities and a deep craving for human blood.
Most of the film deals with Morbius' internal struggle as he tries to balance his new violent
urges with the humanitarian ideals that he's always tried to live by.
That should be the formula for an emotionally intense and nuanced antihero story, and at
times, "Morbius" shows glimpses of just that.
Michael has contributed a lot of good to the world, and as the viewer, you truly believe
that his experiments are largely motivated by a desire to help others.
At the same time, Morbius can be a pretty selfish man.
Though his desire to help the world at large is genuine, his number one motivation seems
to be his own quest for survival.
There's a lot of rich potential in this tension between selflessness and self-preservation,
and Morbius' vampire transformation could have been used to explore the character's
inherent duality.
Michael Morbius starts out with a lot of potential for a nuanced, complex character arc.
Unfortunately, the film wastes no time in squandering that potential.
Unnecessary time jumps and a poorly written childhood backstory sequence establish the
character's tragic past in about as clinical a way as possible.
As a result, the audience has no real emotional connection to Morbius by the time he undergoes
his transformation.
There's a face-value sympathy in a man who has spent his whole life on the brink of death,
but the script seems to expect that premise to be enough, and very little time is spent
developing Michael as an actual character.
Is he actually scared to die?
What is he living for?
What does he want to leave behind?
These are the kinds of questions that, if they'd been addressed on screen, could have
made for a deeply textured character — perhaps one more deserving of Jared Leto's bizarre
method acting techniques.
Instead, viewers are graced with a stoic protagonist with excruciatingly little substance.
One of the best things "Morbius" has going for it is that the whole aesthetic surrounding
the central character looks pretty cool.
He has long vampire hair.
He wears a black vampire trench coat.
And when he fights, he flies around with a lightning-quick fighting style that's accentuated
by some very stylish smoky swirly effects.
Some might argue that Morbius' powers rely too heavily on CGI, but for the most part,
that CGI does its job well.
"Morbius" is never better than when the Living Vampire is in action.
The film's first major action sequence, which sees him take down a group of mercenaries
on the ship where he mutates himself, is a definite highlight, blending the from-the-shadows
tension of the "Batman" movies with the hard-hitting speed of Zack Snyder's Superman.
The film never explains whether the smoke trails that accentuate Morbius' movements
are a side-effect of his transformation, a result of his incredible speed, or what, but
whatever it is, it looks pretty cool.
The special effects culminate in a genuinely striking scene where Morbius uses his echolocation
to find a single heartbeat in New York City, then flies to it in a whirlwind of purple
and black.
It's honestly shocking that Leto looks so convincing as Morbius, considering that he's
nearly twice the character's age.
While the stylish aesthetic created around the Morbius character is quite effective,
the rest of the movie suffers from a myriad of visual problems.
Cinematographer Oliver Wood is a seasoned veteran of his craft, and it would be irresponsible
to hold him solely responsible for the camera work in "Morbius," but a certain amount of
blame does inevitably fall at his feet.
Wood is perhaps most famous for his work on contemporary action movies like "Die Hard
2," "Face/Off," and the original "Bourne" trilogy.
Though the "Bourne" films received critical acclaim, they've also become notorious in
the years since for popularizing the use of shaky cam.
Not every issue with the cinematography in "Morbius" is due to shaky cam, but the technique
is indicative of the larger problems plaguing the film's cinematic style.
Nearly every scene is shot with the same level of intensity.
At best, it's mildly nauseating.
At worst, it's practically unwatchable.
Modern superhero movies seem obsessed with competing for the longest runtime.
Films like "Avengers: Endgame," "Spider-Man: No Way Home," and "The Batman" all clock in
around the two-and-a-half to three hour range, which can be a big ask for moviegoers.
Of course, all those films were also very well received upon release, so it could be
argued that they needed their extra length to pull everything together.
Still, it's refreshing to see a superhero movie that keeps things short and sweet.
"Morbius" is listed at an hour and 44 minutes, and it definitely never dwells too long on
any one scene.
It's a fast and furious movie, and not just because of the inclusion of Tyrese Gibson.
"Mmm hmm, this is crazy man."
"What're you talking about now?"
"I'm sitting there looking at these images."
In fact, if you compare the final film to the trailers, you'll see that lots of scenes
and lines were removed for the final cut.
If sitting through the three hours that a lot of other movies demand these days is a
dealbreaker for you, then you may be glad to see how brief "Morbius" truly is.
Despite its relatively short runtime, "Morbius" still has major pacing problems.
It somehow manages to feel both sluggish and rushed at the same time.
The film opens with a beautiful vista shot of Costa Rica, where Michael Morbius has traveled
to capture vampire bats.
After a brief shot of him using his own blood as bait, the film jumps back in time 25 years
for a stilted backstory sequence explaining his difficult childhood.
After that, it's another abrupt cut to present-day New York, where Morbius is revealed to have
successfully captured a whole swarm of bats off screen.
This sort of rapid-fire pacing continues throughout the film, but it gets even more distracting
once the vampire transformation takes place.
Morbius shows very little emotion in response to his monstrous state, with only a handful
of loud outbursts to augment his otherwise stoic demeanor.
If the movie ever slowed down for a second, it might be able to humanize Morbius and his
struggle a bit more, but instead, the script keeps jumping between underdeveloped side
characters and overwritten exposition.
There's no time for viewers to catch their breath, much less develop any tangible emotional
attachments.
Perhaps worst of all, this breakneck pace makes every section of the movie feel the
same.
The frantic camera work and abrupt scene transitions make it impossible to determine which moments
are pivotal and which are supplemental, turning the entirety of "Morbius" into one long, repetitive act.
Like the vampire for which it's named, "Morbius" is not entirely devoid of life.
Most of the humor and humanity that can be found in the film comes from Tyrese Gibson
and Al Madrigal, who play a pair of FBI agents investigating Morbius' activities.
The interplay between Gibson's stone-cold persona and Madrigal's deadpan comedy is genuinely
funny, with great moments like the latter bringing a "triple-blessed" vial of holy water
to their interview with the vampire.
Madrigal and Gibson are so entertaining, in fact, that it's easy to envision a better
version of "Morbius" where they play a larger role.
Instead, the feds get relegated to a C-tier supporting cast position, and their occasional
jokes are ultimately drowned out by the film's cacophonous self-seriousness.
For as good as the FBI agents are in "Morbius," the other supporting characters are deeply
lacking.
First and foremost, Matt Smith's Milo, based loosely on the character Hunger from the Marvel
comics, is a terrible villain.
From the moment he's introduced, it's painfully obvious that he'll eventually turn evil.
When Michael tells his friend "this isn't you," it's almost laughable; this is clearly
the only thing Milo was ever written to be.
Equally disappointing is Michael's romantic subplot with Doctor Martine Bancroft, played
by Adria Arjona.
The actress does her best with a script that is constantly working against her, but her
efforts just aren't enough.
The greatest trick that "Morbius" pulls is showing you glimpses of a better movie that
could have been.
The opening title card fades in over a cool synthwave graphic of hard lines and bright
pinks, teasing a retro aesthetic that never comes to fruition.
The hard-boiled humor of the FBI agents hints at pulpy noir, but that tone never gets enough
of a foothold to influence the rest of the film.
And of course, there are plenty of dark corridors to evoke the horror genre, which "Morbius"
pulls from heavily.
In the moments where these stylistic touches are strongest, "Morbius" can be a pretty fun movie.
Unfortunately, the movie refuses to fully commit to any of its more interesting aesthetics,
languishing mostly in dreary exposition and ripping off scenes from better movies.
The shot of Michael being swarmed by vampire bats in his lab is a particularly egregious
instance of this, with a backing score that elicits memories of Hans Zimmer's "Batman
Begins" score.
Unfortunately, that's a comparison "Morbius" would probably be better off not even attempting
to make.
"It's not who i am underneath, but what I do that defines me."
Though it occasionally evokes other genres, "Morbius" is a superhero movie through and through.
But even in that space, the film feels about two decades too late.
Rather than those more recent entries in the genre, "Morbius" is easier to compare to early-2000s
movies like Ben Affleck's "Daredevil."
From the clunky dialogue and overall angsty tone to the flat side characters, "Morbius"
is a movie that feels stuck in the past — swooping in from an era when superhero films were bad
more often than they were good, and before stars like Robert Downey Jr. proved that comic
book exposition didn't have to sound dorky on camera.
If "Morbius" leaned more into its retro vibe, if it allowed more of "The Crow" in and less
of "Ghost Rider," perhaps Sony would have had something.
Instead, we're left with a series of questions about how a movie like "Morbius" got made
in 2022.
Like most superhero movies of the modern era, "Morbius" peppers some teases for the future
with its end credits.
There are two post-credits scenes in the film, both of which focus on the return of Michael
Keaton's Adrian Toomes character from "Spider-Man: Homecoming."
Because Keaton is a fantastic actor, and because "Homecoming" is so beloved, it's undeniably
fun to see Toomes brought back into the fold.
"At what cost?"
Great question!
While the cameo is fun at first, it also comes with its share of problems.
For starters, seeing him at the end of "Morbius" mostly reminds viewers of a much better movie.
Then there's the matter of how he actually appears in the "Morbius" universe, which is
confusing to say the least.
The first credits scene shows the sky over New York being fractured, clearly referencing
the multiverse spell from "Spider-Man: No Way Home."
However, that spell previously only brought characters from other realities into the MCU,
not the other way around.
So why does Toomes teleport to Michael Morbius' world?
How does he get a new Vulture suit without Chitauri technology?
Is there even a Spider-Man in Sony's Spider-Man Universe?
These are confusing questions to leave audiences with at the end of a movie, but given that
the movie is "Morbius," they're a welcome distraction.
From top to bottom, "Morbius" is a failure.
It ruins all efforts at horror and tension by rushing through every scene.
It kneecaps a potentially interesting protagonist by leaving him cold and underdeveloped.
It is an hour and 44 minutes of messy plotting, clumsy dialogue, and nauseating cinematography,
and it ends with one of the most egregious CGI slugfests in the history of superhero cinema.
The "Venom" movies might not be masterpieces, but they embrace their campy tone in a way
that at least makes them entertaining to watch.
"Morbius," on the other hand, is the worst kind of bad movie — the kind that's so messy
and poorly constructed that it feels like a chore just to keep watching it.
Sony clearly has high hopes for their interconnected "Spider-Man" universe, but as the first proper
expansion into that shared continuity, "Morbius" is a colossal disappointment.
"This movie was a total disappointment.
No thought went into it.
No effort went into it."
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