At The Movies: Morbius

Sony builds upon it’s Spiderman universe with its latest comic to film superhero adaptation in Morbius.
Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) , a world renowned Bio-Chemist who suffers from a rare blood disease, has spent his life researching a cure to end his suffering. His scientific achievements in the medical field, including the development of artificial blood are overshadowed by his inability to find a cure for his own condition.

In his pursuit for answers, he conducts an experiment on himself which inadvertently leaves himself with vampirism, and an insatiable desire for human blood. Faced with a moral dilemma, should he embrace his new form or destroy himself and his life’s work?

Morbius is a fast-paced affair from start to finish. Wasting no time in it’s 104 mins running time, it’s scenes and characters move quickly at all times barely pausing to catch a breath. As you would expect from any superhero film, there’s plenty of action and does feature some very cool stop/start motion effects.

However, there certainly isn’t much time dedicated to building the supporting characters. The motivation for Morbius is easy enough to understand, but for the rest of the cast? Their inclusion seems largely superficial, serving to keep Morbius’ story moving forward and we don’t really learn much to add any weight to the films plot or plight. Surprisingly for a vampire-based action film, there’s also a distinct lack of blood which you would assume leans more into the studio keeping the PG rating than explore what a super powered vampire-human would be capable of.

Leto is well cast as Morbius bringing his usual intensity to the role, but it feels like his potential is somewhat wasted here with the films pacing. This definitely also applies to the supporting cast. Jared Harris is under-utilized as Morbius’ mentor, as is Adria Arjona as Morbius’ friend and colleague Martine. Comedian Al Madrigal adds some bright moments as FBI Agent Rodriguez, as he tries to track down Morbius but these moments are few and far between.

Acting as a stand-alone introduction to the character, there are some references to potential future cross-overs into the Spider-verse but these don’t really add or subtract from the storyline. Made on a relatively modest budget $75 million, Morbius is a lightweight introduction to a cool character that has a lot more potential. I hope we see him again and learn more next time!

Movie Review By Samuel Phillips