Review : 

Morbius is the latest in a long line of mishandled Marvel properties by Sony and their studio system. While this follows in the footsteps of previous Sony Marvel movies including Venom and the Tom Holland Spider-Man trilogy, Morbius is by far the worst of the bunch and one of the absolute worst MCU entries to date. There are so many things wrong with this movie that it was difficult to focus on anything else. Whether it be the CGI, clunky dialogue, or the overall schlocky and uninspired origin story of yet another lackluster anti-hero, there were few things enjoyable about Morbius.

The underwhelming cast is the perfect starting point to dissect this movie. Jared Leto is his usual self, with little to no depth or flair added to the character which is honestly a good thing because we certainly don’t need another Zach Snyder Joker situation. Michael Morbius is boring and cookie-cutter without a shred of interesting character development. Matt Smith portrays Milo (Lucien) with the same level of uninspiring energy as Leto. Their chemistry on-screen is nonexistent and within a few minutes of the movie, it is obvious how they will soon become foes to drive the “plot” forward.

Protagonist and Antagonist aside, Adria Arjona is not an actress that I was familiar with prior to seeing Morbius but the poor woman needs a new agent. Her character, Martine Bancroft, is supposed to be smart and bold but fails to do anything other than get in the way. The forced love plot between her and Morbius is boring and contrived to the point of laughable. And let’s not forget Jared Harris and Michael Keaton. Oh boy, these guys deserve better too. This is the worst possible return for Keaton and further muddles the waters of the already convoluted and messy Sony MCU. Jared Harris is too gifted of an actor to be part of this dumpster fire of a movie. I don’t know how much Sony offered him to be in this, but it certainly wasn’t enough to make up for the awful dialogue and ridiculous plot that Morbius contained.

The typical good vs. evil threads make themselves apparent very early on. It’s not a big problem, as it is a comic book movie and the primary audience is children and teenagers. The problem is the way that they were woven together to create Morbius. It’s BORING. I’m not part of the audience that gets Marvel fatigue easily, as I genuinely enjoy most of them, but this one had me checking my watch about every 10 minutes because I could not wait to get out of the theater. The decisions made by the characters are telegraphed so far in advance that if anybody were to sit down and write out what they think might happen in this movie, it would be 95% correct because it was that simple. There wasn’t a single exciting scene, subversion of expectations, or memorable laugh to be had in the entire 104 minute run time.

The CGI, cinematography, and score of Morbius are equally embarrassing. Everything felt weightless and floaty, without any oomph or force behind it. The set design and action set pieces were diluted with darkness and choppy frame rates to distract from the rushed CGI. Coupling the awful visuals with the oddly familiar score, the whole movie looked and sounded like a rushed assignment that the teacher forgot to collect but the studio didn’t take advantage of the extra time. For a studio like Sony to put out something like this, after months of delays, with such little care or attention to detail makes me wary of giving them any more of my box office money for the next few years. This does not bode well for future projects like Kraven, Madame Web, or any other yet-to-be-announced Sony Marvel projects.

Morbius is far from enjoyable and certainly not worth the price of admission. I’m all for watching dumb movies (like Moonfall!) and turning your brain off to enjoy the popcorn and spectacle, but the popcorn was more interesting than this movie was. It is an absolute train wreck in every sense of the word and Sony needs to sit down and reevaluate who greenlights these scripts.

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