The Bat Man

"Morbius" all but drains the lifeblood out of an interesting character in favor of a paint-by-numbers comic book adventure that would have felt more at home in the mid-2000's

Sony's relationship with Spider-Man in the last decade has been complicated, to say the least. Ten years ago, they decided to reboot the character's film franchise from scratch, despite the fact Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 3" had been released just five years earlier. The character was rebooted again, as Sony reached a joint deal with Disney and Marvel Studios to have the character featured in 2016's "Captain America: Civil War". Since then, the co-produced "Spider-Man" films have all been met with warm critical receptions and even hotter box office takes, with two of the three movies so far grossing over 1 billion dollars. However, the story has been a bit different for their in-house productions. Aside from the award-winning "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse", they have yet to make a film that critics have liked. Both "Venom" films have been met with tepid responses, despite audiences reacting more positively. However, the financial success of both movies has allowed Morbius to become the latest Spider-Man foe to receive his own solo outing.

Jared Leto stars as Michael Morbius, a brilliant doctor stricken with a rare blood disease. In an effort to cure himself, he develops an experimental serum derived from the blood of bats and accidentally transforms himself into a living vampire. Along with some newfound fangs, he gets superhuman strength and agility, but also develops a thirst for human blood. With the help of his colleague Dr. Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona), Morbius fights to keep his primal urges at bay and stop his serum from falling into the wrong hands. The film also stars Al Madrigal, Jared Harris, Tyrese Gibson and Matt Smith in a scenery-chewing turn as Morbius's best friend Milo. The score was composed by Jon Ekstrand and it was directed by Daniel Espinosa.

Considering how long it sat on the shelf, it's a shame "Morbius" isn't better. For context, the film's first trailer was released over two years ago and principal photography was said to have wrapped some time in 2019. In the midst of reshoots and the pandemic, the project's release date was shuffled no less than three times before finally settling on April Fool's Day 2022. The film has a rather strong start, setting up an intriguing opening acting act that builds a solid foundation for the story, but it steadily loses steam and limps to the finish line by the time the credits roll. While the performances are mostly adequate (even Tyrese, who looks incredibly bored throughout), there are no stand-outs and the script by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless is almost laughably cliche for several stretches. It feels as if chunks of the movie are missing, with not only crucial bits of character development seemingly excised, but key moments depicted in the trailer have vanished as well. Not to mention there are two mid-credit scenes confusing enough to leave even die-hards scratching their heads. It's admittedly watchable and it isn't the worst superhero flick out there, but it doesn't give audiences much to sink their teeth into aside from a few watered-down, rehashed thrills. C