I’ve been a fan of vampires movies since I can remember and my first flick was 1987’s “The Lost Boys.’
So on one hand, I was set for a bit of gore and dry humor with an over-the-top villain straight out of the gate.
Over the years, I’ve seen everything from art-house and indie films to portrayals of classic vampires like Anne Rice’s bunch and the emergence of Blade – the day-walking vampire comic hero.
Each incarnation had its own flaws and shortcomings.
The only problem with “Morbius” is that there’s no real depth to it and it seems to only serve as a bland slide into the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s multiverse phase – May 6’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”
Morbius is a superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Morbius, the Living Vampire, produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel.
Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is the third film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU).
Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU) is a media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel Entertainment.
Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, the films are based on various Marvel Comics properties associated with the character Spider-Man starting in 2013.
Directed by Daniel Espinosa and written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, it stars Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, alongside Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Al Madrigal, Charlie Shotwell, Joseph Esson, and Tyrese Gibson.
The film is 104 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, some frightening images, and brief strong language.
At a hospital in Greece, 10-year-old Michael Morbius (Shotwell) welcomes his surrogate brother Lucien (Esson), whom he renames Milo; they bond over their shared blood illness and desire to be “normal”.
Their adoptive father and hospital director Dr. Emil Nicholas (Harris) arranges for Michael to attend medical school in New York while he focuses on caring for Milo.
Twenty-five years later, Michael (Leto) publicly declines a Nobel Prize for his work with synthetic blood.
Michael’s colleague Martine Bancroft (Arjona) discovers he has secretly captured dozens of vampire bats from Costa Rica in the hope of splicing their genes with his own to cure his condition.
After informing Nicholas and Milo (Smith) of his planned experiment, Michael receives funding to outfit a private mercenary vessel in international waters with his equipment.
While the cure works, it surprisingly transforms Michael into a vampire.
After an interruption from the mercenaries that leaves Dr. Bancroft knocked out, Michael kills and drains the crew of their blood.
Once his bloodlust subsides and he regains his senses, a horrified Michael erases all CCTV footage of his experiment before contacting the authorities and jumping overboard.
Michael returns to New York and discovers he has superhuman strength, speed, reflexes, and echolocation.
He subsists on his synthetic blood until it gradually ceases to satisfy his needs, while working on some form of an antidote to his condition.
FBI agents Simon Stroud (Gibson) and Al Rodriguez (Madrigal) investigate Michael’s victims and deduce his involvement.
Soon enough, Milo learns that Michael is cured, but becomes furious when Michael refuses to cure him as well.
And that’s where things get weirder but not very much more interesting, to be honest.
Morbius could have been better than this but overall, it serves its purpose.
If you’re going to see this on the big screen, don’t forget to wait for two after-credit clips.
