Spider-Man: No Way Home came out just over three months ago and it was absolutely phenomenal. Everyone has sung its praises, myself included, and only now is the dust around it beginning to settle. So, with that in mind, it's about time the next Marvel outings see their releases, isn't it? Marvel Studios have taken somewhat of a break since No Way Home, only now just getting started once again with the gradual release of their new show, Moon Knight, and their next film, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, releasing in just over a month. However, also releasing their new Marvel outing at this time, that being Morbius, is Sony, who have lately been trying to replicate Marvel's success with their own Spider-Man cinematic universe. I really wasn't excited for this film, but I thought it may be worth going to see it, similarly to how I thought Venom: Let There Be Carnage from last year may be worth going to see despite very minimal anticipation.
One thing that occurred to me was all the delays this film received. Of course, its initial July 2020 release as well as some of the subsequent ones had to be pushed back due to COVID closing cinemas down, but it felt like they kept postponing it even when the virus wasn't much of a concern. I mean, at one point it was scheduled to release in late January, a time when cinemas were doing great business thanks in no small part to No Way Home releasing a month prior, yet it got delayed once again to now, the start of April. I suspect Sony were wary that the hype around No Way Home would still be quite formidable around that time, which it was, and thus thought best to push the release back so Morbius wouldn't get stuck in Spidey's shadow. Based on that, maybe this film is something special and the filmmakers thought it deserved the absolute best release window. Maybe, right?
In the film, Dr Michael Morbius is a renowned scientist with a rare blood condition. After spending his whole life searching for a cure, he soon finds something that may actually be what he's been looking for. However, it ends up making things worse for him as he soon acquires the characteristics of a vampire bat, most significantly having the horrific desire to consume blood, turning him into a murderous monster.
The major problem with this film is that it just borrows from every other superhero film we've seen to the point where it feels it doesn't have a single original aspect outside of the main character being one we haven't seen on screen before. The plot just trudges through the typical motions; the main character with a conflict of sorts, the inciting incident giving them a set of powers, a montage where they come to grips with said new powers, then an action scene or two where these powers are exercised, and, of course, a baddie who acquires the same set of powers but uses them in bad ways, resulting in a final battle where two characters with the same set of abilities punch it out until the good one wins. Sorry if that's spoiled the film for you, but if you couldn't see any of this coming, I really don't know what to say. Narratively, this film offered absolutely nothing. It was so predictable and thus such a boring experience.
What's irritating about this is the fact there is an interesting story buried in here somewhere. The film highlights how Morbius is put into a position where he will eventually have to consume human blood in order to stay alive, which is actually quite a fascinating dilemma, and I think you could derive some very compelling drama from it. However, this isn't Avengers: Infinity War, or Spider-Man 2, or The Dark Knight, that being a superhero film that manages to properly explore the themes and conflicts associated with the main characters while also being a fun and exciting watch - this just raises the questions and moves onto some action scenes and extensions of its cinematic universe, so the attributes that could make for a really intriguing film are just plainly abandoned.
Speaking of action scenes, they're the sort of thing you'd expect to be at least passable in a film of this nature. For example, I'm not such a big fan of films like Venom or Captain Marvel, but they do at least have a couple of noteworthy action scenes to keep themselves afloat amid their rather flimsy narratives. Here, however, they're actually quite incompetent; just a load of ugly CGI combined with an excess of shaky cam and that effect from 300 where what's happening goes from normal speed to slow motion in quick succession, so nothing especially engaging. There's some mildly interesting stuff when we see Morbius harnessing the abilities of a bat such as echolocation, but most of it was just incomprehensible and hardly enjoyable unfortunately.
Is there anything good about the film? Not especially, but there are certainly things that aren't bad. The performances were all fine, albeit nothing outstanding. Jared Leto, who I don't really think is that good an actor, was perfectly adequate in the lead role, and nothing more. I guess he looks the part, but that's about it. Matt Smith was equally fine as the villain, and Tyrese Gibson was actually fairly enjoyable, though that can entirely be attributed to the fact that I just find him innately likeable. I suppose one thing I can praise the film for is its runtime. It's about fifteen minutes short of two hours, which is fairly short compared to other superhero movies. The pacing itself isn't great but at least the film doesn't outstay its welcome. Also, being a new entry in a big cinematic universe, there are a couple of scenes during the credits to hint at what's coming next. I won't spoil what happens in these scenes, but they were moderately intriguing, and actually managed to clear up some confusion I had from the trailers I saw for this film, so that's something I suppose.
One final thing I'll note is an extremely personal factor, and that is the role of bats in this film. Bats are the single thing in the world that I am scared of the most; not because I'm scared they'll suck my blood and kill me or whatever, but because they just look absolutely horrible. So, this film, which features a frankly extortionate amount of bats on screen in great detail, more so than every film I've seen about a character literally called 'Batman', was absolutely nightmarish for me, and I had to look away on numerous occasions. This alone made the viewing experience quite unpleasant, though it is, as I said, a highly personal factor.
Overall, Morbius is a dictionary definition of mediocre. It's so average, so bland, and so ordinary, that I felt I just got absolutely nothing out of watching it. It isn't dreadful enough for me to hate it and I'm certainly not disappointed by the way it's turned out, but it's still boring and bland. All I can say is that maybe it was delayed as much as it was because the filmmakers wanted to keep it away from us for as long as they could before there wasn't enough room left on the shelf that it'd been sat on for nearly two years.
I'm going to give Morbius a 4.5/10
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