“Morbius” - Film Review
The trouble with adapting a lesser-known character for their own feature-length movie is that few audience members will have any prior knowledge or intrinsic emotional connection to the character. The burden then falls on the screenwriters to introduce the character, make the audience invested in their emotional highs and lows, and, in the case of the universe-centric world that plagues the superhero genre today, make the audience excited for a sequel.
Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) is one of the more obscure villains from Spider-Man’s gallery of rogues. He was born with a condition that requires him to have three blood transfusions a day to stay alive. Michael grew up in a children’s hospital in Greece where doctors studied his condition and worked to find a cure. Lucien (Matt Smith), a new arrival at the hospital, is assigned the bed next to Michael. Michael nicknames him Milo after the boy who had the bed before, and the two become inseparable. At one point, Milo’s blood transfusion machine malfunctions and he passes out. Michael’s quick action and his ability to figure out how to repair the machine save Milo’s life.
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Twenty-five years later, Michael is a doctor whose achievements in artificial blood have earned him a Nobel Prize. He’s still struggling with his condition, which leaves him weak and reliant on crutches to walk. With funding from Milo, Michael travels to Costa Rica to capture a rare species of vampire bat. He believes the bats hold the key to curing his blood condition, and creates a serum that he tests on himself. While the serum cures his condition and makes him strong, it also creates an insatiable need for blood to sustain himself.
In the months leading up to its release, Morbius touted itself as the first movie in the Marvel/Sony superhero universe where the main character straddles the line between hero and villain. It implied that Michael’s conversion to a blood-sucking vampire would be one filled with internal conflict. That would have been an interesting premise. What would happen if a world-renowned doctor who single-handedly changed the world for the better, and who works in a children’s hospital, turned into a monster?
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Unfortunately, Morbius is not that nuanced. There is no internal conflict within Michael. In fact, despite his comic book roots as a villain, Michael comes off as a good(ish) guy in the film. The main adversary is Milo, who takes the serum and uses his new lease on life to act any way he pleases. Where Michael relies on artificial blood to satiate his hunger, Milo feeds on unsuspecting people in the city.
Morbius’ failure is in its characters. The dynamic of childhood best friends who turn into adversaries should hold weight and work on an emotional level for viewers, but there is nothing between them. No sense of loyalty, no lived-in, lifelong familiarity. Milo and Michael, as adults, come across as strangers to one another. Their relationship is the crux of the movie, but is treated as an afterthought in the script. The easiest way to make audiences invested in unknown characters is to ground them in relationships the audience can relate to. The writers seem to feel that by simply calling Michael and Milo best friends, the audience won’t miss the lack of effort put into writing their dynamic in a way that feels genuine.
The movie’s two greatest strengths are Matt Smith as Milo and the score. Both of these strengths were eclipsed by lesser-quality aspects of the movie. Smith’s screen time is limited, but he absolutely shines as an eccentric villain. Maybe the only one in the movie who genuinely enjoys being in the movie, Smith brings a liveliness to the screen whenever he is present. Jon Ekstrand’s score, the movie’s other great strength, is often drowned out by blasting ambient sounds. His blend of John Carpenter-esque synths and epic orchestral music is a welcome breath of fresh air and should have been given its time to shine.
It comes as no surprise that the extremely delayed Moribus is not the finest superhero movie ever released. The film lacks depth and intrigue. It’s a slow-moving exploration of a character that barely makes the case for its existence.
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