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Movie Review: Morbius

Mike Tyrkus

The latest addition to the annals of comic-book film adaptations based on properties from the Marvel cannon, but not currently owned by Marvel, is the disappointing and somewhat tedious Morbius, starring Jared Leto.

Attempting to cure the rare blood disease he is afflicted with, Dr. Michael Morbius (Leto) takes an experimental serum derived from the venom of the vampire bat, inadvertently transforming himself into a living vampire that must consume human blood to survive. Meanwhile, Michael’s lifelong friend, Loxias Crown (Matt Smith), suffers from a similar malady and pleads with Michael to share his newfound cure with him, which Michael is reluctant to do since it has led to some rather disconcerting bloodlust.

But when random attacks resulting in people being drained of much of their blood start occurring all over town, Michael suspects that perhaps there is another vampire loose in the city that he may be the only one able to stop. This all leads to the battle royal culminating in a CGI-laden tussle between the two vampires that is ultimately devoid of narrative worth, let alone of little consequence to the viewer.

Director Daniel Espinosa, who delivered a moderately entertaining thriller with Safe House (2012), is awash with the tortured, clunky world building of the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters that sustains very little intrinsic value of the conflicted hero that should somehow be at least moderately present in this piece. Working from a script by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, Espinosa’s film is a dark, lifeless, CGI-heavy slog that seems only worthwhile for a fleeting few moments that hint at the formation of the Sinister Six.

Jared Leto in “Morbius.”

Anything resembling an entertaining story is repeatedly lost in the muddied noirish cinematography and production design that tramples anything of worth accomplished by the actors by repeatedly consigning the film’s action sequences to blurring images whooshing by each other in mind-numbing fashion before relentlessly leading to the next.

Although Leto seems tailor-made for the title role, and does, in fact, deliver a rather decent turn as the character, his performance is wasted in contrast to Matt Smith’s one-dimensional Loxias Crown. Even the venerable Jared Harris cannot inject anything resembling dignity into the proceedings as the doctor caring for the boys’ blood diseases. There is simply too little to care about for the film to prove of value for any extended period of time.

While Morbius may not be the worst non-Marvel made Marvel movie ever to be foisted upon an unsuspecting public, it is certainly far from the best and tragically could have been considerably better had it not expected so much more of itself.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

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