Film Review: Morbius
Images courtesy of Sony Pictures Publicity Australia.
Superheroes are everywhere these days. A full decade after the first Avengers film and over 20 years after the first Spider-Man, we’ve had all kinds of attempts to shake up the formula; gritty takes on iconic heroes (including 3 silver screen Batmen), critiques of capitalism and consumer culture thanks to The Boys, attempts to embrace the gonzo weirdness of the source material with Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad, and even a neo-western in Logan. So where are we now? The new trend is “villain” films, and like most of its contemporaries, Morbius can’t commit to that promise, nor does it really commit to much else.
Following the chronically ill Dr. Michael Morbius (played by cult leader, former Joker and 30 Seconds to Mars lead singer Jared Leto) as he attempts to cure his rare blood disease, Morbius is a movie that feels dated, and not just due to its many, many delays. If Venom should’ve been released in the mid-2000s, this should’ve come out in the 90s. Aside from the slim helping of gags, there’s barely a pulse, as the movie throws an endless barrage of clichés, feebly attempting to use them as a smokescreen to trick you into thinking it’s a real movie.
The idea of using vampire bat DNA to cure this rare condition is ridiculous, as it was when Dr. Connors wanted to turn everyone in the city into lizards in The Amazing Spider-Man, but 10 years on Sony is still playing the mad scientist stuff with a straight face. The Venom universe, in which the film takes place, has so far succeeded largely due to Tom Hardy’s committed performance, unafraid to use his physicality as he stutters, sweats and drools all over himself, but Leto’s Morbius is boringly self-serious. Either he has too much pride, or he’s afraid to give it his all after such a polarizing reception to his Joker, a role which was apparently largely left on the cutting room floor. Pairing him with Matt Smith’s hammy antagonist Milo only serves to exacerbate these flaws.
I’m not one to get over excited by clickbait articles about how each and every upcoming superhero confirms or denies this existing fan theory, nor am I one to ogle over videos with thumbnails featuring red arrows and circles and titles proclaiming all the easter eggs I missed in each trailer, but other than an attempt to tie things together during the post credits scenes, it winds up almost completely disconnected from both Sony's Spider-Man universe and the Venom films before it. Despite going in with low expectations, I couldn’t shake the feeling that even during its final battle, Morbius was still only getting started. Much like its protagonist, it’s fighting for dear life, and for an introduction to the living vampire, it ends up sorely lacking in bite.
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Morbius is screening in cinemas across Australia from Thursday the 31st of March. For more info click here.