Photo credit https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5108870/
Morbius 2022 IMDb
By Liam Chavez
A lot of Marvel fans would agree that all of their movies are spectacular, and Morbius didn’t fit that description. Looks like Marvel wanted in on the fun when they chose April Fools Day to be the release date.
Morbius is a brand new addition to the Spider-Man cinematic universe that was set up with Venom. This film is about biochemist Michael Morbius who tries to cure himself of a rare blood disease but he injects himself with vampire bat DNA.
This injection cures him of his disease but also turns him into a literal Vampire. This is directed by Daniel Espinosa and is starring Jared Leto, Michael Keaton, Jared Harris, Tyrese Gibson, Matt Smith, and Adria Arjona.
One thing that needs to be pointed out is Michael Keaton was mentioned because he was in the first trailer for this movie, it blew everyone’s minds when we saw that trailer two and a half years ago. Everyone was wondering if it was connected to the Tom Holland Spider-Man universe and there’s a lot that needs to be talked about in how they marketed this movie.
Every single scene that you saw with Vulture in the trailer is not in this movie anymore. There are scenes with him now in here that are completely different but even if all the references to Spider-Man are true they are barely in here.
There are still a couple of easter egg’s here and there but they are so subtle that if you are not a fan you're not going to notice. You know the graffiti we saw in the trailer? Not there.
Certain things are equivalent back to what Sony has done with not just this movie but many others movies that should have been done better. There was something great that Morbius had in there but the execution wasn’t good.
This is a movie that frustrated me and also bored me. It was dull in a lot of its different styles and what it was trying to do and overall there are a lot of problems with this film but I can still say that some people will enjoy this.
There were some decent things to this movie which was Jared Leto. He is good as Morbius, for the character that he was written. He did well and rose above the material. For an Oscar-caliber level actor, who hasn’t had the best recent performances, he fits into the role of Morbius.
Matt Smith also has a good time in this movie. Matt Smith is like in a completely different movie, it seems, but his character has the chemistry, the style, and the charisma that you want to see in a fun comic movie.
People might say “well is it even like Venom? Is Venom not a great made movie because there needs some fun to be had in it?” It’s not like that.
Morbius is a very different tone and style that this film is equivalated to, even though it takes place in the same universe, but Matt Smith is the best part of this movie. So was Adria, she was fantastic as a great right-hand woman right next to Jared Leto.
Jared Harris surprised me as well, for these few scenes he got, there were some good moments in there. Tyrese Gibson though is fine for what he got but he was barely in the movie and the same thing can be said for Michael Keaton.
The last thing I do want to give the film credit for is the concept itself of Morbius, there is something good here. I think what they were trying to equivalate here is not bad but it's also not great.
It just seems that it was very lacking and it feels rushed in execution when it comes down to the script. A couple more rewrites could’ve gotten something different here. Just like they handled the Swamp Thing show in the DC Universe app, they could’ve handled Morbius in making this film a monster movie.
The visual effects were not perfect and they are a lot of not-good moments. The visuals of Morbius and how he looks and some of his fighting mechanisms however were actually alright.
It looked cool in the trailer and it looked cool in the movie but sometimes the CGI will take you out of the experience. Speaking about the experience, many moviegoers need to understand that a lot of stuff you see in the trailers is not there.
People get frustrated by this all the time, a lot of references, and kind of building up is like “okay what is this next step for the Spider-Man Cinematic Universe?” We have a ton of Spider-Man-related movies coming up like Kraven the Hunter, Madame Web, and an Oliver Wilde Spider-Woman movie coming up, so from the trailer it’s like we’re being shown the next evolution, the next chapter, so how will this set up?
The setup in this movie is only like a minute. The post-credit scene is illogical in the way they are executed and it doesn’t make sense of what has been set up in this universe and how they are set up because there are two credit scenes.
NO SPOILERS but they were frustrating to watch after watching an already frustrating film. It makes you look back at Venom 2’s post-credit scene which Venom 2 was entertaining for what it was but then we saw Spider-Man No Way Home and we’re like “Okay so what was the point?”
I feel like they are trying to set up something and it’s the same issue they were running into with the Amazing Spider-Man series. Like the Amazing Spider-Man 2 has good ideas but it just feels rushed where Morbius doesn’t feel like it’s its own standalone movie once the tie-in and then when it wants to tie in you lied to the people seeing the trailers.
People who saw a Spider-Man graffiti on the wall, who saw Vulture in there, who expect these different things to maybe tie in and further out this universe, and the way they execute that was terrible. Even when they do focus on the entire film itself it is also terrible.
The script is not great and so is the editing, some of the camera sways, and the way that it is zoomed in on certain characters just feels overly melodramatic which took me out of my experience and just really baffled me on certain scenes.
This movie is a mix of the very first Venom, where it’s Venom versus another symbiote, as well as The Amazing Spiderman 2’s whole entire subplot of Harry wanting Spider-Man’s blood so that way he can be cured. Literally that is the same plot, take both of those movies, mix them together, it’s the same thing here but definitely not fleshed out and very rushed.
Character development, all those sorts of things, it’s not there it’s missing and in the finale, I saw that there were 20 minutes left and I knew that at least 10 of that would be credits and they summed all that up in 12 minutes. It builds up and it has this great pack and it just ends.
For me, that is frustrating and boring. There were cool moments in the conclusion but totally rushed in execution. There is no way to end with that.
It feels like that in an hour and 45-minute film there was not a cohesive nature of what they wanted to do, there was definitely a better script that needed to be made here. I don’t think Espinoza’s directing wasn’t bad it was fine and what he was given is what he directed.
It’s sad really because Morbius should have been better. This is not a good movie, it’s a movie that copies exactly a lot of other films that have already happened. Some of the action and the visuals of Morbius were cool and I liked how they were going for a monster-style movie here but when it dives into the story it’s not great.
When it tried to connect to the Spider-Man universe it was rushed, it makes no sense and it was illogical. The post-credit scenes will just leave you more baffled and frustrated.
Liam Chavez is a Voice writer.