Morbius Review – A Boring Vampire Anti-Hero

There's no life in this dreary, by-the-numbers comic book movie.

<p><em>Morbius<&sol;em> feels like a horror film trapped in the current Marvel movie formula&period; In the current framework of trying to keep a multiverse of superheroes and villains connected&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s bound to be some sameness despite the genre diversity&period; One genre that seems as though it can&&num;8217&semi;t quite get through is horror&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On the surface&comma; <em>Morbius<&sol;em> has all the trimmings to be a great monster movie&period; If only it had the grit to be that type of film&period; What we&&num;8217&semi;re left with instead is a watered-down anti-hero story that lacks any punch&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-177509 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2022&sol;03&sol;31141427&sol;MorbiusJaredLeto&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center">The Metamorphasis of Morbius<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s the classic story of a doctor turning into a mad scientist that becomes a monster&period; Michael Morbius &lpar;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0001467&sol;">Jared Leto<&sol;a>&rpar; had grown up with a blood disease that has required him to use crutches and get constant blood transfusions&period; His life&&num;8217&semi;s work becomes devoted to finding a cure&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A cure might lie in fusing human blood with the DNA of bats&period; Or&comma; you know&comma; it could transform him into a bat-themed monster that craves blood&period; Or both&comma; as is the case in the film&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Morbius&comma; however&comma; is such a dull character that he treats this discovery with little excitement&period; He simply treats it as the next stage of the experiment and finds little thrill in his new abilities&period; His new buff body being able to soar through the air on currents is treated with a passive observation&comma; where the only thought going through his head is &&num;8220&semi;I need to document that&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center">The Many Mundane Additions<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Okay&comma; so Morbius himself is a snooze&period; What about the other characters&quest; They&&num;8217&semi;re not much better although they do exude more emotion than the blank pit that is our lead protagonist&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Martine &lpar;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm5245722&sol;">Adria Arjona<&sol;a>&rpar; is Morbius&&num;8217&semi;s lab assistant and love interest&period; She seems to be more of a caring assistant&comma; however&comma; and this is oddly treated as them being romantically involved&period; They eventually kiss but without much romantic charm that comes between them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm1741002&sol;">Matt Smith<&sol;a> plays Milo&comma; a friend of Morbius since childhood with a similar blood disease&period; He takes on the same cure as Morbius as well and chooses to use his powers for evil&period; He&&num;8217&semi;s more interested in the story not so much because of his contrarian nature but because he shows some humanity in his desperation for finding life and bringing death&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-177512 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2022&sol;03&sol;31141800&sol;Jared-leto-Morbius-1200x675-1&period;jpeg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1200" height&equals;"675" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center">A CGI Fight Fest<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s a bit of a downer that a film such as Morbius relies heavily on computer graphics for nearly all of its fights and transformations&period; Perhaps Morbius is given too many powers that do not appear impressive&period; For instance&comma; he&&num;8217&semi;s so fast and agile that he leaves smears and trails of atoms in his wake&comma; looking like he just dashed through an oil painting&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>How many films can you think of where the hero and the villain stop becoming real and just become CGI characters battling each other&quest; That happens again here in Morbius&comma; complete with a slo-mo shot to showcase a punch here and there&period; And every slow-motion sequence always looks artificial&comma; rarely convincing the audience they&&num;8217&semi;re witnessing a thrilling bout between bitter vampires&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center">Dead Humor<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>In the film&&num;8217&semi;s attempt to be more in line with Venom&comma; there are some attempts at humor that fall incredibly flat&period; Morbius casually makes a joke about how he&&num;8217&semi;s not that kind of vampire who is burned by sunlight&period; We also get a joke from the pursuing detectives &lpar;Tyrese Gibson&comma; Al Madrigal&rpar; who bring holy water to interrogation after capturing Morbius&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>None of this works&period; Even the funniest line from the trailers about Morbius pretending he&&num;8217&semi;s Venom is kneecapped by the removal of the punchline&period; Was it really funnier if Morbius just lied about being Venom and the criminals believed him&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center">Mixed Messaging<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>What sucks the most about the film is that it actually has a chance to say something about cures and personality in conflict with health and societal views on disability&period; Sadly&comma; this topic never comes about&period; Oh&comma; how it has so many opportunities and fails to take advantage of them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Consider the scene where Milo confronts his childhood doctor and Morbius&&num;8217&semi;s father Nicholas &lpar;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0364813&sol;">Jared Harris<&sol;a>&rpar;&period; Nicholas is understanding enough to ask Milo what is wrong and what he can do to help Milo&&num;8217&semi;s current situation of vampirism so he won&&num;8217&semi;t hurt people&period; Milo reduces this conversation to it being fun to hurt people because he was hurt as a boy and the standard villain motivation is off to the races&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Even worse&comma; Morbius recognizes that he has gone too far with his cure and opts to kill himself after defeating Milo&period; He doesn&&num;8217&semi;t and even spreads his vampire abilities to Martine because&&num;8230&semi;uh&comma; I guess this is his life now&period; Forget all that blood research that was literally saving the lives of dying children&excl; Time to fly around and drink blood&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-177510 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2022&sol;03&sol;31141546&sol;Morbius3oginal&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"800" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center">Conclusion&colon; <em>Morbius<&sol;em><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><em>Morbius<&sol;em> doesn&&num;8217&semi;t have much of anything&period; No thrills for the substandard action&comma; no horror that is teased with the monster story&comma; and no humor for a film that can decide what kinda comic book movie it&&num;8217&semi;s trying to be&period; Possibly an early-2000s comic book movie&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Even if you&&num;8217&semi;re only watching this film to see how it connects with both Venom and the MCU&comma; the connections are limp&period; The mid-credit sequence is meant to be exciting for the future of Sony Marvel movies but it comes off as dull&period; Sure&comma; whatever&comma; Sinister Six is on the way&period; Did I really have to sit through 100 minutes of bland comic book action to get that&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Did you see <&sol;strong><&sol;em><strong>Morbius <&sol;strong><em><strong>in the theater&quest; Was it better or worse than <&sol;strong><&sol;em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;venom-let-there-be-carnage-review-a-briskly-charming-anti-hero-story&sol;"><strong>Venom 2<&sol;strong><&sol;a><em><strong>&quest; Let us know in the comments below&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;review&lowbar;wrap">&NewLine; <h3 class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;review&lowbar;subtitle">The Review<&sol;h3>&NewLine; <h2 class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;review&lowbar;title">&NewLine; Morbius&NewLine; <&sol;h2>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;reviewheader clearfix">&NewLine; <div class&equals;"review&lowbar;score score&lowbar;bad">&NewLine; <span class&equals;"score&lowbar;value">2<&sol;span>&NewLine; <span class&equals;"score&lowbar;text">Score<&sol;span>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"desc" style&equals;''>&NewLine; <p>One of the weakest Marvel movies that delivers a dead-in-the-water monster story&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;reviewdetail clearfix">&NewLine; <div class&equals;"conspros">&NewLine; <h3>PROS<&sol;h3>&NewLine; <ul><li><i class&equals;"jegicon-check"><&sol;i> Okay special effects here and there&period;<&sol;li><li><i class&equals;"jegicon-check"><&sol;i> Some decent casting&period;<&sol;li><&sol;ul>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"conspros">&NewLine; <h3>CONS<&sol;h3>&NewLine; <ul><li><i class&equals;"jegicon-cross"><&sol;i> Boring hero with a dull lead&period;<&sol;li><li><i class&equals;"jegicon-cross"><&sol;i> Bland special effects&period;<&sol;li><li><i class&equals;"jegicon-cross"><&sol;i> Tired story with little energy&period;<&sol;li><&sol;ul>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;reviewscore jeg&lowbar;reviewbars clearfix" data-scoretype&equals;"point">&NewLine; <h3>Review Breakdown<&sol;h3>&NewLine; <ul><li>&NewLine; <strong>Final Score<&sol;strong>&NewLine; <span class&equals;"reviewscore">2<&sol;span>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;reviewbar&lowbar;wrap">&NewLine; <span style&equals;"width&colon; 20&percnt;" class&equals;"barbg"><&sol;span>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <&sol;li><&sol;ul>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; &NewLine; <&sol;div>

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