Morbius is a 2022 superhero film about Michael Morbius trying to cure himself from a rare blood disease and eventually turning into a living vampire.
It’s official! Jared Leto has managed to star in a movie worse than Suicide Squad. He has done the impossible. Sony Pictures is simply lost without Marvel Studios’ help when it comes to developing their own cinematic universe of Marvel characters. After the theatrical release of Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, we now have the latest installment titled Morbius with Morbius the Living Vampire finally getting a cinematic adaptation. Directed by Daniel Espinosa, it stars Leto in the titular role, and this is indeed his second time portraying a comic book character on the big screen. For an actor known to be selective with roles, this one is truly a question for the philosophers.
It focuses on Dr. Michael Morbius (Leto) who is suffering from a rare blood disease and looking for a cure. He attempts to heal himself through vampirism, which eventually turns him into an actual living vampire. However, a new evil is now coming after him, and we have ourselves an uninspired and dull film that takes you back to the 2000s era of godawful comic book movie adaptations. Yes, it’s that bad…
At this point, Leto’s acting credibility has gone downhill after his portrayal of the Joker in Suicide Squad. For a guy recognized for taking on eccentric roles, this is probably the most bland performance he has ever given as an actor. He does admittedly try his best as Morbius, but it’s just not interesting. His relationship with some of the characters is incredibly generic to a point that it makes you realize the script, written by Matt Sazama & Burk Sharpless, is very weak. The main problem with Morbius is that you don’t care about anyone. No one really stands out. Matt Smith seems to have fun with his role, and he’s somewhat more intriguing than Leto in terms of charisma and motivation. Some of the supporting actors like Jared Harris and Tyrese Gibson are just there in the background, and you even forget they’re in the overall narrative.
As a whole, Morbius is rushed with choppy editing. Nothing flows cohesively, and it feels very discombobulated. As an origin story, you have seen this type of backstory so many times before but done better in other comic book adaptations. One of those rare cases that even fans of this particular genre would start suffering from superhero fatigue. Nothing makes sense throughout, and you will constantly roll your eyes from scene to scene. The Venom movies are at least trying to be campy and entertaining, while Morbius is taking itself way too seriously in a very boring way. Also, if you’ve unfortunately seen the trailers before the film, it’s sad to say they spoil the post-credits scenes. Someone must stop Sony.
Morbius is not just one of the worst superhero films ever made, but it’s also one of the worst films of 2022. This heavily reeks of desperation from Sony, especially with the post-credits scenes. Leto can’t seem to catch a break with comic book films, and we’ll see what else they do in this cinematic universe. Hopefully it’s better, because this is one gigantic mess of a movie.