Morbius

6/10 - I don't know what all the fuss is about with this one when the quality matches that of either Venom movie and while I didn't love the visual design of the vampires, I thought the cinematography, VFX, sound design, and Adria Arjona (who is now on my "Actors to Watch" list) really elevated the relatively weak story.

I have to admit that I had really been looking forward to watching "Morbius" ever since I saw the first trailer. And having been reading the comic books, I will say that Michael Morbius is one of my favorite Marvel characters, so it was nice that the character was finally brought to the big screen.

But then the movie was delayed and delayed again, and once finally out a lot of bad reviews were swarming the movie, so I was actually somewhat reluctant and hesitant about actually sitting down to watch it. But I decided to ignore the bad reviews and go see how the movie would treat the comic book character.

Writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless managed to put together a fair enough storyline. I will say that it was aimed more at an audience fully and wholly unfamiliar with the Michael Morbius character. And I can understand that approach to the first movie with the character, as to introduce a whole new audience of viewers to the character, and not go in on the deep end and do fan service to us whom have been reading the comic books for years.

Personally I had hoped for a bit more in terms of story, but it was actually adequate enough in terms of entertainment. An origin story for a character new to the cinema screen is in its place, I suppose.

I was also somewhat hesitant about it being Jared Leto to don the mantle of the living vampire, given the swing and miss performance of Joker in the 2016 "Suicide Squad", but then again he was amazing in the 2000 movie "Requiem for a Dream". Thankfully, then his performance as Michael Morbius was quite good and actually was suitable for the character from the comic books.

Visually then you are in for quite a treat, given the fact that this is a Marvel movie. The CGI and special effects are quite impressive in the movie, as they are in all Marvel movies. So if you enjoy flashy CGI and special effects, then "Morbius" doesn't disappoint.

All in all, then I will say that I was more than adequately entertained by the 2022 movie "Morbius", though I had hoped for a bit more in the story department. But hopefully the future will add more layers to the character and his story.

My rating of director Daniel Espinosa's 2022 movie lands on a seven out of ten stars.

From all the bad press and reviews I suspect that people were looking for more then it intended to be. Seeing it for free on Netflix might have dampened the pain. This is not an MCU movie. It's trying to be one in the Underworld flair. Maybe too much Underworld. One of the problems is that Jared Leto cannot carry a movie. He needs a stronger lead to work off of. When he has that he's more than enough. The subtlety of the effects works for me. The bad guy Milo was a little too one dimensional and flat. Predictable. Weak writing in that regard. Not enough character development. I can see Morbius working in an ensemble MCU cast. Hopefully he will be given that chance.

This is not your favourite huge budget Marvel movie like No Way Home, this is a introductory film of a somewhat niche character and if you compare any comic film to something like No Way Home it will fall flat. I went into this with an open mind and I had an enjoyable time. It's a different type of Marvel film with dark humour and I enjoyed myself while watching it. I am familiar with the character and have read the comics and I was not disappointed with what Leto and Smith respectively brought to their roles. I think if you are able to enjoy a film without nitpicking at it then you'll have fun with this.

Entertaining and very atmospheric, Morbius manages to serve up yet another helping of campy superhero indulgence despite many little flaws. I'll start off with the problems I had with this film- that mainly being its blatant editing and CGI. I know many people say this about a lot of superhero films, but coming from a horror lovers perspective- as well as fitting the atmospheric and tone Life director Daniel Espinosa seemed to pair within it- this movie really should have been rated R. It feels like Sony really did censor and edit this one as much as they could have, with the blood and violence being as limited as possible. It takes away from the experience as a whole, one moment in particular where a man acts like his throat is cut open but there is LITERALLY NOTHING THERE. Unsurprisingly, as with the case with a lot of films like this, the CGI can be a bit overused at times. For the most part I liked the look of vampire blood hungry Morbius taken on by Jared Leto- but other similar CGI and at times that CGI itself can feel a bit too ugly and forced for comfort. The fight scenes towards the end in particular are also overdone with CGI, and I just really wish Sony would have let the people working on this film give some life to the project instead of worrying about its box office gross. I know i've complained a lot so far, but in terms of a film- I oddly did enjoy this one for the most part. Sure it's messy, Matt Smith's character is a bit over the top and it has some formulaic moments- but it is a very entertaining film. Leto and Arjona give their all to their performances and it has a lot of cool ideas and concepts that are interesting to see fleshed out on screen- particularly with Morbius in particular as he begins to learn how to control himself. There's a lot of humanity hidden beneath the surface in this film though, even with some formulaic moments, there's a lot of depth and heart put into the titular character and it really allows you to empathize both with the film's story as well as Leto on screen. In the end, I enjoyed Morbius- it is far from perfect but it was a solid superhero endeavor and I'm curious to see what they may do with this character next.

My Rating: 6.3/10.