Morbius

Daniel Espinosa directs this latest addition to the Sony, Marvel anti-hero catalogue. Jared Leto is Dr Michael Morbius, born with a rare and debilitating blood condition. Brought up in a home where he is looked after by Dr Nikols (Jared Harris), he befriends a new patient whom he christens Milo. We fast forward from his less than idyllic childhood to find him experimenting with vampire blood to try to cure his condition. He believes he has success however when he takes his serum it has unexpected side effects and while it fixes his broken body, it also unleashes a beast.

It’s fair to say there has been a comic book fan backlash to this. But for me, while it is not great, it also isn’t terrible. What Morbius suffers from, and this is a possible issue for Marvel, in the long run, is that it is another character who we struggle to care for, like the other Sony anti-hero Venom he isn’t that interesting.

Although Morbius is not helped by the filmmakers, who in the relatively short 104 minutes, make no attempt to develop his character or that of his friend Milo (Matt Smith), who predictably becomes the main antagonist, leaving us with two characters we don’t care about. The lacklustre story doesn’t help with little by way of plot or narrative arc. This leaves us with a few action set pieces that just amble along with no real hook to draw you in.

There is one redeeming feature and that is its commitment to its vampire inspired horror which is dark and visceral at times, but unfortunately, that’s not enough to overcome its shortcomings.

Performances are Ok with the limited script they have to work with. Leto is restrained, Matt Smith has a good time, and there is a little light relief from Al Madrigal and Tyrese Gibson’s FBI officers.

Morbius is no classic and while it is a little dull it’s not the stinker some suggest. It’s just uninteresting, a non-event, lacking narrative or character development. Instead, it just passes you by and will soon be forgotten. But no doubt he’ll be back, like Venom, whether we want more or less-bius of him!