#MovieReview: Morbius takes big swings and misses every one

The latest offering from Marvel sees Jared Leto playing the brooding, emo and lifeless Dr. Michael Morbius.

Existing in the Spider-Man extended universe, Morbius should be setting up future capers with the friendliest superhero, in the same way that the Venom series has.

Morbius never captures the tone that makes those movies successful however, and despite a notably short runtime, drags its way through every frame.

Some movies are intentionally campy and bad, some movies are bad because there is a huge production issue, but occasionally, a big budget movie with big stars tries its best and is still bad.

Despite 2 years of Covid delays which could have been used for reshoots, Sony’s creative team just made every wrong decision.

Leto gives it his all, and credit to him, but his overly sincere and hardworking performance looks so out of place in this movie that it becomes comical.

Following his much maligned turn as the Joker in Suicide Squad, it is surprising he got another superhero-movie role at all, but this is surely his last.

Add special effects that look like a fan’s photoshop reshoot and this vampire superhero outing should have had a stake driven through it.

Mild spoilers to follow:

Morbius follows the story of a brilliant doctor with a rare blood disease who turns to bats as a way to solve his problem.

B-movie Batman discovers superpowers in his quest for health, taking on vampiric qualities and wreaking havoc on New York.

Nobody knows whether he is good or bad, and he is torn between his human and vampire self.

This all plays out in dark frames where most of the action cannot be made out, but this may be a strength rather than a failure in Morbius’ case.

An end-credit sequence sets up a link to the Tom Holland Spider-Man universe, but whether Michael Morbius will be stirred from his cave remains to be seen.

It has the qualities to become an ironic cult favourite of the so-bad-it’s-good ilk, but for most viewers, the movie is likely to fall flat.

Rated 13 for scenes of Horror, Language and Violence.

Score: 1/5.