Rushed. Spineless. Flat. In an attempt to piggyback on the ongoing Spider-Man hysteria Morbius was released. Morbius is the most recent Sony's Marvel Universe release; the walking, breathing, human living vampire. A character with a legendary backstory in the marvel universe was meant to reach our cinema screens in a pulsing and thrilling manner. However, despite what one can only hope were their best intentions it was not received in that way.
For those of you not familiar with the character Morbius, according to the comics he is a talented scientist with a fatal condition. He hopes to rectify the condition for himself and others who share it too. Morbius decides that altering their DNA with the blood sucking bats was the way to go about. I mean who cares about potentially becoming Dracula right ? In a desperate attempt to feel normality Morbius’ experiment doesn’t go to plan leaving in him in a human vampire hybrid situation.
Yes the 2022 Morbius release sticks to the original story but that’s all it does. Disease, Medical Scientist experiment gone wrong, doctor left fighting blood urges. The movie lacked detail, it lacked exploration, it was predictable even in the most “omg” worthy scene. Clustered is the word I would choose to describe the 1hr 44mins, especially if we consider the beginning and end. The only hints at who Morbius’ enemies are isn’t till the post credits when he’s seen with Toomes. With a cast made up of Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Jared Harris and Tyrese Gibson who individually are quite talented made expectations a little higher regardless of the already existing bad reviews.
My first thought when watching the movie 15 minutes in was how quickly they rushed to showing us the adult Doctor Morbius or even the evident mean (potentially evil) streak in young Milo. Would it have been nice to see a young Morbius do something other than use a pen to fix a machine ? Yes. Would it have also been nice to see more of his Columbia trip? Yes again.
Before the tone of this review reflects utter disappointment I have to note that it was not the entire feeling. Despite what seemed like a undeveloped script and sloppy direction the movie had its few good moments. Like many a notable scene (spoiler) was the nurse who sensed something was lurking in background as she fearing something wrong sped down the hall setting off the motion lights only to be caught later. That was most probably the only borderline on thrilling scene and even then it didn’t last for long.
For a movie that has so many fight or dramatic scenes it doesn’t seem like the director’s intentions were to actually let us see them. There was no smoothness and clarity in the scenes like previous marvel pictures. The only time a “swing” or “punch” were clear was during the 2 second slow motion clips. Which I’m sure were put there for “ooooo” and “ahhhh” effects which I doubt it received. The fight scenes par Dr. Morbius trying to escape after the nurse was found were scrambled together. I hate to say it but the CGI wasn’t good enough. It has been said that like the Avengers:Endgame the same VFX tech was used for the CGI. Which then begs to question why Morbius and Milo resembled bad cartoon characters amongst the normal background extras. Why the fights scenes were similar to a Cartoon Network brawl. The colourful trails left behind after movement I can however give a thumbs up to.
The attempts to showcase the relationship between Morbius and the bats doesn’t go unnoticed. Even though the bats clouded our screens during a super corny and rushed ending. The effort Morbius put in to understand the bats and seeing how they reacted to him was a pro.
It is evident that the Morbius’ short comings were a result of an underwhelming script. The writer seemingly just wanted to get to the point without thinking “how did we get here?”. More was needed for young Morbius and Milo; not to mention the Morbius and Martine.
For those of you reading who still have no clue as to what the story behind Morbius is then yes this movie will give you a basic insight. However, if you were already familiar with the character and looking forward to seeing him transferred from paper to our screens then I’d kindly ask you to refund your cinema tickets.
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