"Morbius" Feature Talkback (Spoilers)

[Yojimbo]

Let go of what you used to be. Discover who you’re meant to be.

Morbius
Release Date: April 1, 2022 (March 31 advance screenings)
Studio: Sony Pictures
Directors: Daniel Espinosa
MPAA Rating: PG -13 (for intense sequences of violence, some frightening images, and brief strong language)
Screenwriters: Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless
Starring: Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Al Madrigal with Tyrese Gibson
Runtime: 108 minutes

Plot Summary: Dangerously ill with a rare blood disorder and determined to save others suffering his same fate, Dr. Morbius attempts a desperate gamble. While at first it seems to be a radical success, a darkness inside him is unleashed. Will good override evil – or will Morbius succumb to his mysterious new urges?

Discuss Morbius right here!

Related Discussion:
-Official Website
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-Morbius News & Discussion Thread
-Venom Talkback
-Venom: Let There Be Carnage Talkback
-Sony's Spider-Man Universe News & Discussion
-Sony's Spider-Man Universe News & Discussion Part 2

 

[Pooky]

Some people have accused this of false advertising and from what I remember of the trailers I think that's pretty fair. This kind of feels like a mid-budget horror film rather than anything MCU-adjacent, but as someone who likes horror films more than superhero films, and generally prefers pulp stories to American comic books, that's not all bad news. Not all.

People said Venom feels like a film that would have been released around the time of Spawn and I would say that myself, but I acknowledge there's an element of hyperbole there. Now people are saying Morbius feels like a film that would have been released around the time of Elektra and Ghost Rider, and to me that feels about 99% true. It's actually quite uncanny at times. The way it blends horror tropes with slightly corny CGI-driven comic book theatrics does bring to mind films like Van Helsing, I Frankenstein and Dracula Untold too, but thankfully it's a little better than those.

I've never really "got" Matt Smith as an actor, but I think he's good here. Leto is OK.

I think this is a fairly enjoyable horror film for the first half, that touches on some intriguing themes. I like the idea of

Spoiler

having to deal with the realisation that you've killed people, even someone you considered a friend.

But ultimately it becomes a rather flat, mediocre quasi-superhero film that doesn't work.

The post-credits scenes are embarrassing, as you've probably heard, and they don't even feel like they're from the same film.

I think some of the reaction this has received has been a little OTT, but I don't really think it's good enough for me to go to bat for it either.

 

[Neo Ultra Mike]

Blah blah blah long rambly spoiler review below

Let it be on record I've always considered this movie in particular to be a really stupid idea that I'm still shocked got past so many of the Sony big wigs and higher ups it wound up getting made. To back up, Morbius was yet another one of the many characters created to be an antagonist for Spider Man. One of the ones created in the 70's era of the character which yeah had a decent stint of popularity for awhile but that well wound up running dry. Likely due to Marvel comics for awhile not even being allowed to use their horror icon characters. However that changed in the 80's and by becoming more of this kind of tragic anti hero in the 90's Morbius wound up actually gaining quite a bit of popularity. Which is why he was given this huge arc in the 90's Spider Man cartoon. Like they introduced him early on as a rival for Peter and then during the whole mtuation saga wound up mixing Peter's mutated blood with a vampire bat and that's how he became a living vampire... on a pretty heavily edited down cartoon show. Which yeah couldn't even feature a vampire drinking blood thus him drinking plasma but yeah he had this whole huge tragic romance with Felicia Hardy and that wound up entagling him with Blade and then he showed up later again when she became Black Cat and like her happy ending in the series is going off with Michael so again they did show a lot of his struggles and I guess I saw the appeal at hte time. Someone who had this hunger for "blood" that didn't want to really hurt anyone but had the vampire instinct which makes him the perfect sort of sympathetic villain like say your Lizard you could feel bad for but still get why Spidey would fight him. I guess he also played well in the comics back then too so much so that Morbius was actually going to appear in the first Blade movie. Yeah the whole reason Blade appeared in Moscow at the very end of his first movie was to tease or have a fight with Morbius but legal issues or tight production or rewrites or something prevented that from happening thus the character never until now got his chance to appear on the big screen.

And quite honestly if it weren't for Sony's own greed and desire for their own cinematic universe that's where Morbius would remain. Like yeah you do always need villains for Spider Man to fight in his movies but not only is the idea of having a vampire not something that really works cinematically with Spider Man, but Morbiu's popularity dropped off pretty heavy by the 2000s. Like the guy until this movie had become a more C to D lister villain/anti hero who didn't nearly have the popularity of some other titles. Like someone like Venom was super popular in the 90's as well but remained popular and people still wanted to see on the big screen so I don't like how they went about it I get wanting to make a Venom movie. This choice though feels a lot more desperate. I guess at least it's easier to separate Spider Man out of the origin but the character in general wasn't someone people were really demanding to see. Though I guess since he was popular and some could paint him as an anti hero guess it made him an easier sell to the higher ups who yeah continue to scrape the bad idea barrel for these spin offs and yeah when Kraven comes around next year I'll get into pointing out why that's a bad idea. This though despite the numerous NUMEROUS delays (some admittedly for the Pademic others to avoid certain other Sony movies) is what's out now and what I'll talk about now and overall... I guess I don't hate it as much as the average critic does but it's not really good either and some of the interesting ideas they don't commit to and yeah the action scenes in this one are a bunch of zooming around without really any impact whatsoever so a big sell of the movie isn't even there.

Okay I want to be fair to this movie so I'll get the positives out of the way. Which I do think Leto is actually somewhat charming as Mobius. Like him actually cheering the sick girl in the hospital pointing out how he's going to get in trouble and him pointing out to Martine "i'm not the kind of vampire who gets hurt because of the sun" though not really funny at all are at least sort of charming bits. Like it does seem like Leto was invested in this character and when he had to speak about being a medical professional that part at least felt believable. And I am glad that there's not really anyone whose that unbelieving of what's happening to Morbius or like people see vampire stuff going on and think it's a hoax since yeah there's a state of shock and confusion but not like there's some BS conspiracy or the police aren't releasing important details. I am also glad that Morbius clarified to Milo "yeah this supposed cure I can't even control and made me accidentally kill people" so he wasn't being vague or anything to the guy about what happened to him which I admit a lesser movie would have done just to try and justify Milo taking the supposed cure. But yeah they still had Morbius do the right thing at least to him but Milo didn't care and honestly I like the idea of him as a villain; the guy pretty much is now able to fully go around and enjoy himself and he isn't looking to conquer the world or thinks all of humanity is evil. He just doesn't care about basic life in general so if you're an obstacle in his way or a dick to him he'll eat you but he isn't just going on eating random people. I like showing that with the bit at the club where he could be charming just flirting with this girl and then some jealous guy come in and yeah later he eats them but again it's not like it was out of nowhere or just offing random people. And I do like the idea that he's going after Michael not to try and punish him because he hates the guy but rather "look we should just accept what we are and not try to play by humanity's rules." Like yeah this is a guy who was in a crappy place all his life and bullied (well in one scene could of done better showing more of that honestly) so I get why having these powers he wouldn't see them as a curse and just wants to be with the guy he cares about more then anything else. Weirdly enough at least motive wise that makes him easily the best of these Sony villains. Riot just sucked and was generic and we never got any time to get what Cletus's connection was with Brock so their bond felt weirdly forced but at least I get here why these characters act the way they do. And I guess this does move at a decent clip. There is a bit of a lull between Morbius and Milo's first battles but it does go along at a decent pace.

.... However most of the rest of this movie suckssssssssssssssss. Quite honestly thinking about it I have no idea why the cop characters were there other then to establish "Morbius is on the run from the police/can't go to them for help against Milo" which we would of been able to assume anyway. Heck even the additional cop in Let There Be Carnage was at least related to one of the villains and obviously was being set up as something. And yeah Tyrese's character is Simon Stroud so he is played by someone who also has some connection in the comics but here he's just "guy who knows Michael cause he used one of his blood inventions when he was younger but eh otherwise is just like 10 steps behind michael and Milo and the police are just there to run from or be bodied." You didn't need to give them premise especially because they aren't funny either. The holy water bit maybe if delivered well could of worked but yeah no just fell flat. So did a lot of attempts of humor in this movie. I remember getting one genuine laugh but I can't remember what it was even for. But I did get some annoyance at stuff like the song that was playing as Milo was dancing around or Morbius going "oh is this where the guy out of nowhere in the hoodie comes to kick the gang's ass" to those phoney money launderers. Like maybe Ryan Reynolds could deliver that well but Leto can't and yeah though I will praise Leto on his performance being charming, he seriously failed at making Morbius intimitating or hell even that sympathetic. The moment of him realizing he killed people or that he may of sucked someone innocent's blood out while in a stupor should of hit hard but he just did not sell the reactions well and didn't seem as bothered or upset about it as he should be. I remember in the 90's cartoon how over the top Morbius is which though campy makes sense for this sort of overly tragic and woe is me sort of character but Leto portrays him too subdued at points for those emotions to mean anything. Not to mention guy has noooooooooo chemistry with Martine. Like even Milo was pointing out the two weren't in love which... I did not feel that at all in their scenes from how he looked at her as a vampire when she got knocked out to approaching her again in the bus to even the two of them kissing. There wasn't any compassion or endearment in how they interacted at all and it felt so forced and dry. Not to mention how lame sauce her "resurrection" was. I was actually going to give the movie some points for Milo having actually injured Martine to the point where she couldn't be saved and Morbius had to feed on her to survive since hey at that feels like it's capturing the right angst for the character and though making her just you know an emotional power up in this final fight against Milo at least not just staying a hostage or anything and not like she was compelling anyway. But apparently she I guess is now also a vampire even though this movie from how it was described you only became transformed taking that shot that Morbius whipped up and when your blood was sucked dry you just died. Not randomly just coming back also undead. I guess that was there attempt at sequel begging and I'll get to their worse soon enough but that was an especially painful one.

What really kills this movie though is it's lack of set up and really gelling with the characters. Apparently there was a fair amount cut out of this movie which you can especially tell in the first act. They needed more time with Milo and Morbius as kids to build up that sibling bond and heck there was this scene of Morbius telling off the Nobel Peace Prize people that we didn't see and I still don't get why he even did that like was this a statement on how he couldn't find a cure for his own condition yet or not wanting to be there because again he's usually such a charming a nice guy otherwise before the vampire bite and even then when not under that vampire curse why have that in especially if you aren't going to show it? Like hell they have the first scene be adult Morbius for no reason sticking his hand out to get the bats in Costa Rica when really we should of gotten the stuff of him as a kid first. This isn't a movie that has planned to shift focus in having an opening action bit to go into it's prologue. Sonic the Hedgehog knew how to do that but this just feels like it was done because it's more exciting but done last second so it feels weak in the final product. And again there are so many cuts that make you fail to get properly invested and even when you're almost giving the movie a bit of a chance as it's just Leto being charming and setting up his metamorphisis into a Vampire and outside of bad initial scene placement things aren't too bad... you get hit with how horrible the action is with the shoot out with the mercanries and Vampire Morbius offing them. The actual fighting and him leaping around looks ridiculous and him just dragging them away or appearing behind them doesn't have any strong concrete movement likely because this is another character who if you are going to make a focus they need to be R. Like Venom or Carnage but you know especially in the sequel movie I could at least see some solid hits and get a scope and sense of this character's abilities. Here though it's shot in a way you don't really feel that. Even in scenes of Michale practicing his vampire flying or vampire sensing it's just a lot of swirls and energy flowing around without any proper momentum to make that feel impactful as it's just going on "go really fast stop at a random moment for a hit" but not even done in a good way like a Zack Snyder movie. Say what you will about Man of Steel the fights in that movie really slammed. Here though whether it's through a train station or under the streets none of Milo and Morbius's clashes had any impact. Not to mention the whole "oh Morbius uses the power of the bats to trip up Milo" doesn't work sicne Milo would have those same powers so why is he tirpped up so much by the bats? Plus if you went through all the motions of making him such a monster when transformed you can't decided to make him sympathetic again losing those powers when he purposely chose to be like that. It's tragic in the other Spider man movies seeing these guys loose themselves thus why in No Way Home you cheer for them being cured but that is not the case with Milo here. He was warned better and did it anyway so he needs to pay more for that decision. I also really didn't like the end credits teaser which yeah you can tell were obviously changed especially since this movie was originally meant to air in 2020 and obviously had much more different implications. I don't know what those were but I'm pretty sure the Michael Keaton/Vulture scenes weren't just him randomly getting transported from the MCU jail to this world's jail and thus since Toomes isn't a criminal here being able to go free but somehow building a full on Vulture suit and making a deal with Morbius to "do some good". Which just doesn't make any sense. No Way Home made it clear the people who were sent to this world were those who knew who Spider Man was Peter Parker in some form and when the spell was reversed were just sent back home. Why in the hell was Vulture sent to another world? Not to mention even ignoring how this doesn't make sense... why the hell is a Morbius and Vulture team up interesting? Toomes was a criminal for the sake of his family (Which BTW woudln't he want to get back to? Like why didn't that thought cross his mind here?) who would be as much an enemy of this take on Morbius like Peter was if Morbius's whole thing is just trying to help others? And really there's no connection between these guys with this Morbius having no involvement with Spider Man and the two having totally different styles of operation that wouldn't clash at all. *Groans* Is Sony really going to try making an Avengers esque team with these guys? Are we going to see them show up at the end of Kraven the Hunter as well recruiting him to the group? That's just stupid. Heck even the novelty of these teaming up because one played the Joker and one Played Batman doesn't work considering how different those interpretations were. Again just shows how in these live action movies Sony has no plan and Marvel just has to deal with them flopping about because they still have Spider Man even if they don't know how to use that well.

So yeah not a good movie. I guess not total trash either. I mean this did work better then Fan4stic but it is weak we're still getting super hero movies like this in 2022 when it feels like we should be past this sort of nonsense by now and I guess that's what people are sick of. That and the fights suck and the ending scene was stupid and the emotions didn't hit so minor charm only goes so far.

 

[Pooky]

Whatever this movie's faults, worth existing just for the #MorbiusSweep jokes.

 

[Yojimbo]

Digital release might be May 19.

 

[RoyalRubble]

Morbius will be available on Digital on May 17. The DVD, Blu-Ray and 4K Ultra HD release date is June 14.

 

[Yojimbo]

First 9-10 minutes.

 

[Fone Bone]

Morbius

What a rip-off! I am absolutely INFURIATED! What the hell, man? 16% on Rotten Tomatoes?! Man, this movie shoulda been a total DUD I was allowed to laugh at and MST3K to death, and instead it's boring and mediocre at worst! What the hell kind of pop culture world do we live in when they can't even deliver a movie as bad as this one promised to be?! You promise me a turkey and don't deliver, I'm pissed the hell off, whether you are Thanksgiving or Rotten Tomatoes! I would have LOVED to be able to rip a Sony Marvel Universe movie to shreds and people were telling me I was gonna get to! I call foul! (Fowl?)

Do you know the worst part about this bland movie's not terrible quality? I saw this week's "above average" episode of The Flash. A show that has been on the air for 8 years, and is relatively well-regarded. This was better than that! By like a LOT! What the hell, man? I don't want a boring movie! I want and am owed a bad one! Crap!

Matt Smith did great as Milo, unfortunately none of that character's sociopathy was ever set up, so his heel-turn feels forced. Again, a move of a lukewarm movie move. Not one of a terrible one.

The Blu-Ray didn't come with any deleted scenes, but I would have liked to have seen the original Michael Keaton footage before Spider-Man: No Way Home totally wrecked this movie's MCU plans.

I can't get over how low-budget and inappropriate for a vampire movie the main and end titles were. That's lousy. I want bad! But truthfully, that's the closest thing to that I got.

All throughout the movie I'm reminded of Family Guy's observation about Jared Leto that he somehow seems both deathly ill and ripped at the same time. I was like "Ta dah!"

I don't care about what the end tease promises. A Sinister Six movie will NEVER happen. We've been promised one since the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It is not ever happening. Deal with it.

Another thing that veered dangerously close to being pleasurably bad was the "I am Venom!" joke. Does the public at large in the Sony Marvel-Verse even know who Venom is? Not buying it.

You can't promise me Star Trek: Enterprise's "These Are The Voyages..." and give me Star Trek Insurrection instead! Yeah, it still sucks more than most of the rest of the franchise. But it isn't actually terrible! It's forgettable when I demand atrocious!. What the hell does a troll have to do to get a truly crappy Marvel movie to bash these days? Ever since Fox closed up shop they've been few and far between. Damn it! **1/2.