Movie Review – ‘Morbius’

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ and I’m Tim Bradley!

I’ve seen the movie ‘Morbius’ at the cinema! 🙂 This is the third film in what is arguably called ‘Sony’s Spider-Man Universe’, even though Spider-Man doesn’t appear in it (yet). Honestly, you could’ve called this the ‘Sony Spider-Man Villain Universe’ in order for it to make sense. Is that unfair of me?

Anyway, back on track. I made predictions on the movie based on the film’s trailer back in January. ‘Morbius’ is another one of those films that was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic – please keep safe. It was meant to come out in 2020 before getting delayed to January 2022 and then April 2022.

As established in my predictions based on the film’s trailer, Morbius is a Marvel Comics character I knew little about. I’d seen him in episodes of the 1990s animated ‘Spider-Man’ series, but I hadn’t read any of his comic book appearances. Or if I did, I’ve forgotten what they were like from reading them.

I think it’s fair for me to say that I’m not a fan of Morbius as a Spider-Man villain. Not that I dislike him or anything. I’m just not keen on the notion that he’s a living vampire. I’m not keen on vampires either, though I’ve written a couple of vampire stories in ‘Doctor Who’ like ‘The Victorian Vampires’.

I’ve also seen, read and heard a number of vampire stories in ‘Doctor Who’ through the TV series, the Big Finish audios, books and comics, which I’ve enjoyed, such as ‘State of Decay’, ‘Goth Opera’ and ‘Blood Harvest’. Going into ‘Morbius’ as a film, I wasn’t really expecting much from watching it.

Judging by how the Sony universe of Spider-Man villains have gone so far with ‘Venom’ and ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’, I expected ‘Morbius’ to be in the same league. It’s not helped by the fact that the film received negative reviews from critics, despite audiences seeming to rate it higher than them.

After seeing it at the cinema and noticing the low score Rotten Tomatoes gave it, I have to say…I think the film’s fine. It’s not a great film, don’t get me wrong, but I found ‘Morbius’ a lot better than the ‘Venom’ films in my humble opinion. I appeciated how Morbius became ‘the living vampire’ in this.

It might be down to the fact that Spider-Man doesn’t necessarily have a huge involvement in Morbius’ origins as a potential villain compared to how Venom ended up in his movies. I can’t be too certain that this film is a faithful adaptation of the comic book character, but I would like to think so.

Essentially, the film is about Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius becoming a living vampire after curing himself of a rare disease. I quite like the struggle that Morbius went through to hold off his hunger for human blood. It echoes an almost ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ approach to the story, which I enjoyed. 🙂

I was able to take Morbius more seriously as a conflicted character compared to how Venom was developed in his films. I can’t deny there are issues with the story and character development, not helped by some dodgy effects work. But for the most part, I was able to enjoy what was given to us.

Jared Leto, in my opinion, gives a pretty decent performance as Michael Morbius. It’s way better compared to his performance as the Joker in 2016’s ‘Suicide Squad’ (although I’ve not seen the extended version of that film yet). I’m wondering where Morbius will go next in Sony’s universe of Spider-Man villains.

The film also features Matt Smith as Milo, Morbius’ surrogate brother in the film. Matt Smith is well-known for playing the Eleventh Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’. I greatly enjoyed Matt Smith’s performance as the film’s villain. He’s really into it playing the villain and he hasn’t lost his Eleventh Doctor ‘thing’. 😀

There’s Adria Arjona as Martine Bancroft, who becomes Michael Morbius’ girlfriend in the film. There’s Jared Harris as Dr. Emil Nicholas, Michael and Milo’s mentor/father figure; and there are the two FBI agents, including Al Madrigal as Alberto ‘Al’ Rodrigeuz, and Tyrese Gibson as Simon Stroud. 🙂

Tyrese Gibson’s performance in ‘Morbius’ is better than his appearances in the first three ‘Transfomers’ films as well as ‘Flight of the Phoenix’. I also enjoyed Michael Keaton’s cameos as Adrian Toomes/the Vulture during the mid-credits scenes, especially when he meets up with Morbius. 🙂

Mind you, I’m curious how Adrian Toomes got his Vulture outfit when transferring from the ‘MCU’ into Sony’s universe of Spider-Man villains. Unless he built his own Vulture suit, it would stretch it if the Vulture suit from ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ was transferred into Sony’s universe of Spider-Man villains as well as Adrian Toomes. 😐

I wonder what’s going to happen next with Morbius and the Vulture teaming up. How will this affect future ‘Spider-Man’ films as well as future ‘Sony Spider-Man Villain Universe’ films? It would’ve have been funny if Michael Keaton ended up playing Batman instead of the Vulture, since Morbius is ‘the living vampire’.

Overall, ‘Morbius’ was an entertaining film for me to check out at the cinema. I can’t say it’s a great film, but it’s a lot better compared to what I’ve seen in the ‘Venom’ films. Jared Leto delivers an enjoyable performance as Michael Morbius and I found Matt Smith very entertaining as the villain. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim. 🙂