With the worldwide success of “Venom” and its sequel “Venom:
Let There Be Carnage,” it was inevitable that Sony would continue to expand on
their villain Marvel universe. Drew Tinnin said in his review, “Morbius is next
up, giving audiences a 90s inspired horror actioner that delivers on its
promise to be ridiculously entertaining. Jared Leto’s take on The Joker in
2016’s Suicide Squad had the unenviable task of competing with iconic interpretations
of the character.” Playing the Living Vampire, Leto gets the honor of
introducing a Spider-Man villain that’s never been in a live-action movie
before. Tinnin said, “Unfortunately, his performance and most of Morbius as a
whole are layered in melodrama and CGI fakery.”
A sick Michael Morbius is looking all over the planet to
find a cure for his rare blood disease. This search takes him to the entrance
of a bat cave where he sees the essential health benefits of mixing bat blood
with human DNA (no COVID subtext here). Using artificial blood that Morbius has
prepared and combining it with a healthy balance of bat blood leads to a
breakthrough with…unplanned consequences.
His partner, Dr. Bancroft, played by Adria Arjona,
does her best to protect Morbius’ secret, even after (as Tinnin puts it) “she
winds up going from an idealized Mary Sue trope to the more familiar comic book
cliché of Mary Jane.” Morbius and his childhood friend have the same condition,
which leads to an inevitable fight when Milo, played by Matt Smith, becomes
public frenemy number one.
Following the same formula that came before is fine,
that’s what an entire movie universe has been built on. Tinnin said, “Morbius,
however, seems fine with barreling towards the end without delivering on the
moments in-between that make that ending worthwhile. The chemistry between Leto
and Smith is effective, mirroring the relationship between Peter Parker and
Norman Osborn a.k.a The Green Goblin. But Morbius cashes in on the dramatic
beats of better films that came before it, from Venom to Spider-Man: Far From
Home.”
There are some real scenes of horror that call back to
the Universal Monsters, especially in an early transformation scene. Tinnin
mentioned, “With so much bat imagery flapping around, nods to Batman could’ve
been an easy cop-out. The shape-shifting from Leto into Morbius comes straight
from the werewolf mythos, looking painful and exhilarating all at once.”
Surprisingly, the choice to not rely on prosthetics
and instead rely on the latest visual effects ends up being the greatest strength
of “Morbius.” Tinnin noted, “The matches in lighting and the facial mapping
technology are genuinely impressive. The only problem is an overreliance on
CGI. Action beats showing Morbius discover his abilities give way to incoherent
blurs across the screen. Aware of its own visual messiness, the overused
slow-mo effect that we’ve all seen before rears its ugly head in nonsensical
ways.” Slow-motion should be used to show something we wouldn’t have seen
otherwise. Here, it’s just put in because it’s worked in other movies, so why
not?
Tinnin mentioned, “Morbius rushes into its finale at a
fevered pace, only to circumnavigate it in favor of a post-credits sequence
that, apparently, Marvel fans have been waiting for.” The Sinister Six now has
a number of possibilities thanks to what was created in “Far From Home.” This
is where the problem is. Tinnin noted, “Characters like Michael Morbius don’t
have room to breathe when an entire universe is at stake.” This is exactly the
movie you think it is and, for that, “Morbius” is a welcome introduction into a
world that keeps expanding even when it shouldn’t.
In actuality, this movie was supposed to come before “Far
From Home,” but because of COVID, this was re-edited due to constantly being
pushed back. I know the critics really thrashed this movie, but I just found
this to be alright. Leto and Smith really helped this movie out since you buy
their friendship turned rivalry. However, the action seems like it was
borrowing a lot from “The Matrix” movies, since there were times, you couldn’t
make out what was going on. Also, there are parts that feel like they were
borrowing from other comic book movies.
Spoiler alert: there are two mid-credits scenes where
Michael Keaton returns as the Vulture, who has been transported into this
universe. He’s released from prison, and meets up with Morbius, telling him to
form a team, which is leading up to the Sinister Six movie.
Thank you for joining in on my review tonight. Stay
tuned this Friday for the next review in “Brad Pitt Month.”
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