Morbius review: Jared Leto’s anti-hero story is uninspired and tedious

1.5/5

Story:
Michael Morbius (Jared Leto), a brilliant scientist suffering from a rare blood disease, dedicates his life to finding a cure for himself and his best friend, Milo (Matt Smith). A breakthrough in his experiments with help of his love interest Dr Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona) offers hope. But the experiment soon goes awry and turns Michael into a bloodthirsty living vampire. 

Review:
Jared Leto has had the opportunity to play one of the most iconic comic book characters, the Joker, following the footsteps of legends such as Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson, and he has also had the opportunity to make his own mark by establishing a slightly lesser-known character such as Morbius. Unfortunately, for the Oscar-winning actor, both characters suffered for being in terrible films, botched and reshot thanks to alleged studio-mandated alterations — Warner Brothers in the case of Suicide Squad and Sony Pictures in the case of Morbius. While neither of the films are the worst comic book films ever made, any dip in quality was always going to be met with ‘cancellation’ in an era where social media has unyielding power. This is especially true in the case of Morbius.

The film’s greatest failure is the fact that it fails to distinguish itself apart from cliched villain origin stories. The tropes such as the childhood best friend, the love interest, and the mad scientist, have all been overused in several films over the decades. This renders the film predictable to the extent that one might be even able to finish several of the lines said by the actors. Another major flaw in the film is the lack of a modicum of logic in the science fiction aspect of the storyline Granted, these superhero films feature wizards, aliens, and superhumans, but the modern superhero stories are grounded in some form of logic - Superman is a god-like being because he is an alien, and Spider-Man has spider-like senses because he was bitten by an artificially engineered spider. Whereas in the case of Morbius, the titular character has magical powers, similar to that of a vampire, as a result of experimenting on real vampire bats. Explaining his condition as supernatural in nature would have most certainly plugged any plot holes regarding his near-mystical abilities.

There are indicators littered across the narrative that the film is just a setup for a potentially bigger film featuring the ‘Sinister Six’ - six of Spider-Man’s most notorious villains. As a result, there is limited character development, uneven pacing, and a rushed ending. In fact, this is not the first time Sony has tried to set up a ‘Sinister Six’ film. The end credits for Andrew Garfield’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 teased a new film featuring the supervillains, but the film was cancelled and so was Andrew Garfield’s The Amazing Spider-Man 3.

The one notable positive about the film is the performances by Matt Smith and Jared Harris. While Jared Leto is also commendable as the flawed antihero, there is an evident lack of chemistry between himself and Adria Arjona’s Martine — something which even the toxic relationship between Leto’s Joker and Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn did not suffer from. The other supporting characters offer very little to the overall narrative. While several of these flaws are subjective, the false advertising of Michael Keaton’s screen time as Adrian Toomes from Tom Holland’s MCU Spider-Man story is objectively an unethical move by Sony. He does, in fact, make an appearance in the post-credits scene, in what could be described as the worst in the history of cinema. It also created several plot holes for the MCU Spider-Man films starring Tom Holland, which would most certainly infuriate Marvel boss Kevin Feige.

The shared rights for the Spider-Man films and its characters between Disney’s Marvel Studios and Sony are once again going to be a topic of great debate, especially considering Sony is already releasing more films about Spider-Man villains such as the Kraven film starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

Verdict:
Morbius is unfortunately a poor imitation of several cliched tropes, themes, and stories. For those familiar with the Man-Bat from Batman: The Animated Series, and an alternate version of Batman in Justice League: Gods and Monsters, Morbius is an over-bloated and contrived imitation of these popular storylines.