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The collaboration between Sony and Marvel finally releases Morbius this weekend. With the original release date of July 31 2020 pushed back a total of six times...was it worth the wait?
The answer is...kinda?
I'm a pretty big Marvel nerd. I have seen great Marvel movies (Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: No Way Home) and not so great Marvel movies (Black Widow, Eternals). Morbius falls in the later of the two.
Jared Leto plays the Living Vampire known as Morbius, and he does an okay-enough job portraying the character. The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde approach did well and the animations portraying the struggle between Michael and Morbius looked great. Morbius feels like an almost-horror movie the way certain scenes were shot. Morbius actually feels like an actual vampire! This is leagues above the 1990's Spider-Man cartoon where Morbius sucked plasma through his hands to stay alive for the ratings committee at the time. The film starts off setting the tone of the movie very well, and keeps the tone consistent throughout its 104 minute run-time. Marvel is known for throwing jokes in where they are not needed, and the jokes made here and there are appropriate and actually made me chuckle or laugh at certain points. The tense settings and creepy aesthetics really do stand out in this movie. This movie is DARK for sure, all the more noticeable by the person in the front-left of the cinema who had their phone on full brightness texting for the first 15 minutes of the movie. The friendship and later conflict between Morbius and Milo felt genuine and certain dialogue between the two seemed believable enough to keep my attention wondering what was coming next.
Now for the bad: The beginning seemed to suffer from the "let's do a flashback after the intro to let the audience know more about our character" cliche which could have been an editing decision from the studios. Besides main characters Morbius and Milo...I couldn't tell you any other names to save my life. The detectives trying the piece the killings together? Let's call them tough guy and comedic relief. The love interest? Let's call her woman. The Doctor who helped Morbius and Milo throughout their lives? I felt a weird resemblance to the Doctor from the Halloween movies Dr. Samuel Loomis. The entire time I was watching the movie I was wondering where things were supposed to go next. Sure there was conflict, tension, resolution and a story being told...but who was this movie for? Spider-Man fans? Venom fans? Does this film has any significance in the grand scheme of things? The trailers released showed signs of the movie taking place in both Spider-Man and Venom universes. These were ultimately cut for the final release. Were those versions worse than what I saw? The world may never know.
Overall, Morbius is an "okay" movie. I didn't go into this thinking it would blow my socks off and I was correct. I'm still not sure who the movie was made for, and I believe the delays ultimately hurt the release. It was something to do with friends, and I probably won't watch it when it comes to streaming services later in life.
Did you see Morbius? What did you think?