At least with Disney’s Marvel movies, they’re entertaining. And coherent. Sony Pictures’ Morbius, about a quasi-vampire dude who was originally a Spider-Man villain, is a trashy C-grade (or, according to this review, D-grade) throwaway of a superhero film that looks and feels wholly third-rate in every way and form.
Despite starring Jared Leto, who, love him or hate him, is an Oscar winner, Morbius is an ill-advised production, a movie about a character who would work best as a secondary villain in a live-action Spider-Man film but who most certainly is not deserving of the protagonist role in his own, standalone movie.
Sony’s “Spider-Man villain spin-off” strategy has always seemed cynical at best, with the Venom movies serving as a low point for modern superhero cinema—at least until now. The thing is, at least the Venom movies own what they are: batshit crazy and weird productions where star Tom Hardy is given free reign to give zero f**ks.
Everything about Morbius is just so… generic. It feels like a crappy superhero movie from the Elektra era, lacking character, charisma, or purpose. From the visual effects, which primarily involve the title character flying and leaping around with a strange motion-blur, to the plot, which apparently exists, there is just so little to fixate on here it’s hard to even get into the details.
Leto is completely lame, though the material does him no favors. Dr. Morbius is an empty vessel in an empty movie, and no level of method acting could save the role. The supporting cast is nonexistent; two days after watching the movie, I literally can only remember Matt Smith, who plays an unremarkable antagonist named Milo.
Morbius, upon its theatrical release, got panned for being an epic disaster. It is a disaster, but it’s something worse than terrible: it’s utterly bland.
Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.
