Morbius

2022 - 3 - 31

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Morbius (2022) - Movie Review (Flickering Myth)

Directed by Daniel Espinosa. Starring Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Al Madrigal, Tyrese Gibson, Michael Keaton, Charlie Shotwell, and ...

Yes, it is sensible that Milo wants others to know what his sickness and emotional pain felt like, but it’s dialed up to 11 here with chaotic evil unconcerned with the villain’s humanity. The final battle ends as fast as it begins, although that might be a blessing in disguise, considering the betrayal and rivalry buildup between Michael and Mil is forced. Hell, at one point, when Michael has become a vampire and is running low on blood satiation, he quips, “you won’t like me when I’m hungry,” like he is a variation on The Incredible Hulk. It’s certainly not a funny joke and just feels like the writers couldn’t be bothered to write the character. He also remains friends with Milo, seemingly unbreakable as they compare their resiliency and strength to the Spartans (they are the few against the many). Lest you think the filmmakers might go somewhere with that analogy, they don’t. It’s not long before Michael’s experiments irreversibly change him in unexpected ways, killing and drinking the blood of an entire security team. Without context, the film starts with the good doctor securing exotic bats from Costa Rica to bring back to New York. It’s explained that he was born with a blood disease, but that doesn’t stop the entire sequence from feeling like you walked into the middle of the story. Such transformations not only lack finesse and detail, but look and are acted so silly that it’s hard to blame someone for spending these 100 minutes hoping someone gives Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto, for once lately, the least of a film’s problems) a Snickers bar because he’s just not him when he is bloodthirsty.

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Morbius credit scenes explained: What that big MCU crossover means (digitalspy.com)

Morbius leaves fans waiting for the big MCU crossover with Michael Keaton's Vulture, but what does it all mean? Here's the credit scenes of Morbius ...

We see Daily Bugle headlines referencing the likes of Chameleon and Rhino, while we also know that Venom exists in this universe. After Strange's spell, Toomes now probably doesn't know that Spider-Man is Peter Parker, so he might have forgotten the good he did and just remembers it was Spidey's fault he was in prison. Toomes didn't bring it over with him and in Homecoming, it was revealed he made it out of alien tech left over from various Avengers battles. Somehow, this event led to Toomes being transported out of the MCU and into the same universe as Morbius and Venom. Toomes is released as expected, and the second credit scene sees Dr Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) meet Toomes, who is now in full Vulture gear. There are a couple of things that could cause confusion with this scene, starting with the Vulture get-up.

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Morbius reviews call Jared Leto-starrer 'worst Marvel movie in a long ... (Hindustan Times)

The first reviews of Marvel and Sony's superhero film Morbius are scathing with many critics calling it the worst Marvel film in a long time. | Hollywood.

Originally slated for a March 2021 release, the film is finally now releasing in theatres. Calling Morbius 'sloppy', film critic Dan Murrell tweeted that "it also contains the worst attempt at universe building in the modern era". Writing for USA Today, Brian Truitt said, "Even the mid-credits scenes that attempt to bring Leto’s role into a larger landscape wind up being more confusing than cool." The consensus is clear- the film is bad, just how bad is the only debatable thing. In that regard, the film hasn't started strongly with the early reviews of the film largely negative and critical. It also stars Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, and Jared Harris. The Daniel Espinosa film also features a cameo from Michael Keaton, reprising his role as Adrian Toomes aka Vulture from the MCU. It will hit the screens on April 1. The critics, who were shown an early screening of the film, took to social media to write about the film on Wednesday, while some of the first reviews of the film arrived on Thursday morning.

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Morbius ending explained: your biggest questions answered (GamesRadar+)

Matt Smith co-stars as Morbius' friend Milo, while Adria Arjona is Dr. Martine Bancroft, Jared Harris is Dr. Nicholas, Tyrese Gibson is FBI Agent Simon Stroud, ...

What Morbius will do in the long-term, though, will likely be answered in a sequel. In his own universe, Toomes was a villain – but in the Sony-verse, he could be seeking a fresh start. That's most likely because it references the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home – where Spider-Man was accused of killing Mysterio – and Morbius does not actually take place in the MCU (perhaps the plan changed at some stage in Morbius' development, though that remains unclear). How exactly he ended up in the Sony-verse is a mystery. Agents Stroud and Rodriguez hunt Morbius throughout the film, and are on the scene of his final showdown with Milo. When Morbius bursts out from underground and flies away in a swarm of bats, they stand and watch – and that's the last we see of them. Morbius believes the anti-coagulants in vampire bat saliva could help cure the disease – but ends up turning himself into a vampire instead. Milo believes Nicholas always favored Morbius and says that Nicholas pitied him before – and is repulsed by him now. As for why Milo has no problem with killing people, he says that, for their whole lives, he and Morbius have lived with death – so others can know how it feels for a change. During the final fight with Milo, a swarm of bats comes to Morbius' aid and holds Milo down. Both Milo and Morbius suffer from a rare blood disease, though it's given no name in the movie. With the help of Dr. Martine Bancroft, Morbius creates an antibody – one that will kill any "vampire" he injects with it. We've rounded up every single question you could possibly have on the Morbius ending, from what Vulture is doing in the Sony-verse to the fate of the main characters.

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Morbius movie review: Jared Leto's Marvel outing is a bloodless ... (Evening Standard)

This is the origin story of one of Spider-Man's foes, a blood-sucking anti-hero/villain who started appearing in Marvel comic books in 1971. The film was meant ...

A mid-credits scene, involving Michael Keaton as Adrian Toomes/Vulture (last seen in the Sony/MCU collaboration, Spider-Man: Homecoming), is the final insult. Fans love it when the SSU and MCU collide. Morbius also has a buff chest and a tan. We get flashbacks to Michael’s youth and his friendship with fellow invalid, Lucius/Milo. Back in modern-day New York, Morbius is still in touch with Lucius/Milo (Matt Smith), now a peevish Mockney who not only funds his old pal’s research, but seems to have a crush on him. This is the origin story of one of Spider-Man’s foes, a blood-sucking anti-hero/villain who started appearing in Marvel comic books in 1971. Morbius takes the serum and suddenly looks like a 90s pop star. Even the gorgeous Smith, lively at first, runs out of steam. He’ll make a serum that mixes his DNA with that of a vampire bat. One death aside, Morbius the movie isn’t scary or tense. Just to be clear, neither Maguire, Garfield or Tom Holland are in this stinking mess of an “adventure” which is a relief. He wants to cure himself - along with lots of wide-eyed, bed-bound kids - of a rare blood disorder. At the start of the movie, sickly scientist Dr Michael Morbius ( Jared Leto) is in Costa Rica, bonding with bats.

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Morbius review: A Spider-Man spin-off written with a crayon and ... (The Irish Times)

There is too much Jared and not enough Matt. Film Title: Morbius. Director: Daniel Espinosa. Starring: Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, ...

Most ruinously, there is too much Jared and not enough Matt. No harm to Leto, who wears less makeup as a vampire here than he did as a human in House of Gucci, but he appears to be taking the silly role absurdly seriously. Adria Arjona, apparent romantic interest, looks to be going through some of the traumas that Geena Davis’s character endured in The Fly, but the scenes are so sketchy it is hard to say for sure. Where to begin with the issues? Neither of the first two Venom films were any good, but they both made mighty fortunes. After an odd prologue that fits awkwardly into the main body, the film takes us back to two ill young boys in a Greek hospital. Now, if I have learnt anything from Frankenstein, The Fly, The Island of Dr Moreau and Re-Animator it is that nothing ever goes wrong when a man in a white coat ventures this sort of hubris.

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'Morbius' Is One Of The Worst-Reviewed Superhero Movies Of All Time (Forbes)

I'm not sure anyone expected Jared Leto's Morbius to be some sort of MCU-level critical hit, but now that the reviews are in for the blockbuster, Morbius is ...

It’s really strange situation and while sometimes it’s worked out well enough (Venom!), Morbius may be a sign of a slate of pretty awful movies to come, unless they can figure out a way to make these relatively obscure villains work onscreen. So as you can see, this is some truly rarified air. Here’s how it stacks up to some truly terrible classics:

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'Morbius' review: Long-delayed Jared Leto movie is a misfire (Los Angeles Times)

Jared Leto plays the Marvel antihero 'Morbius' in this poorly-made action thriller.

And “Morbius” might be the worst-looking of them all. The bloody incident grabs the attention of detectives Stroud (Tyrese Gibson) and Rodriguez (Al Madrigal), who come to suspect Morbius in a string of murders. It’s a shocking problem in “Morbius” considering editor Pietro Scalia’s past award-winning work on “Gladiator” and “Black Hawk Down.” Why is Espinosa so afraid to show blood or gore? Smith rises above the film, moving with a lanky, unencumbered energy not unlike his “Doctor Who” days. Unlike “Blade Runner 2049” or “The Little Things,” where he could float through scenes as a blank villain, Morbius requires pathos, a layer deeply lacking in Leto’s range. The scrubbing in “Morbius” starts with a flashback to 25 years earlier. Daniel Espinosa’s “Morbius,” a misbegotten, artistically bankrupt bid by writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless to fuse a gothic horror edge to the MCU, is the nadir of comic book cinema. The slow motion and jump scare editing, mixed with plumes of black smoke, aims for frights, but only manages to stitch together a smattering of incomprehensible images. Created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, the titular villain, sometimes anti-hero, sprung from the pages of “The Amazing Spider-Man” in 1971, imbuing the webslinger’s universe with a supernatural grittiness. Espinosa, unfortunately, is so beholden to the timbre of mass entertainment, he struggles to provide his film with the necessary bloodlust, brutality and frights to rise above a snore. So as Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto), a brooding biochemist living with a blood disease, sways with the assistance of crutches getting off the helicopter, the mystery of his story is moot. It’s no secret the desperate lengths contemporary movies, especially of the comic book variety, rely on VFX to do a film’s emotional heavy lifting.

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Relentlessly grim superhero outing Morbius feels exsanguinated (The Irish News)

MORBIUS (15, 104 mins) Horror/Action/Fantasy/Romance. Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Al Madrigal, Tyrese Gibson.

He must hunt human prey and drink blood to feed the darkness that has been unleashed. His metamorphosis into a crazed predator with echolocation crescendos with slow motion Matrix-style bullet dodging and brief flashes of moribund humour. Based on the Marvel Comics anti-hero created by Roy Thomas, Daniel Espinosa's horror unfolds in juddering, desperate spurts like a freshly severed artery.

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'Morbius' review: Jared Leto tries bringing Marvel's vampire to life in ... (CNN)

As Marvel movies go, "Morbius" is more a sip than a gulp, a relatively small-boned Jekyll-and-Hyde tale that moves another Spider-Man villain into the ...

) from a screenplay by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, "Morbius" has ample company in the world of tortured antiheroes and villains whose well-intentioned scientific goals go terribly wrong. But the material is too anemic, frankly, to contemplate spreading its wings much beyond that. , the timing of the film's arrival merely underscores Jared Leto's range, from this living vampire to an entrepreneurial vampire in "WeCrashed"

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Review: 'Morbius'? More like moribund. This is just batty (Coast Reporter)

The latest hero from Marvel is hard to explain. He's a man and yet also a bat. No, not Batman. Let me try again: He's a daywalking vampire, but, no, ...

He just has to ignore moments like when Morbius is chained to a desk in a police department’s interview room and says: “I’m starting to get hungry and you don’t want to see me when I’m hungry.” There will be a lot of debate over where “Morbius” sits in the Marvel canon. For some reason, whenever he leaps, he is enveloped by a viscous cloud. He also seems to be able to turn into a bat and fly but why he hasn't flapped his way out of this film is unfathomable. What's astonishing is that despite a whole movie, we know very little about Morbius. He is so principled that he turns down a Nobel Prize but perfectly OK slaughtering henchmen. He's a man and yet also a bat.

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Morbius review: Michael Keaton's Morbius moment is everything ... (British GQ)

It is, in fact, the worst of the year so far. It has no redeeming qualities, from Jared Leto's monotonous, derivitive Blade rip-off — ah yes, another ...

It is, in fact, the worst of the year so far. Now, characters from each distinct brand can come into conflict — a new variant of Iron Man, for example, or Patrick Stewart’s twice-dead Professor X, or indeed three Spider-Men — the toys being mashed together by conglomerates desperate to milk as much as they can from an insatiable audience of foamy-mouthed fanboys. It has no redeeming qualities, from Jared Leto's monotonous, derivitive Blade rip-off — ah yes, another embarassing performance from the prince of prosthetics — to its absolute lack of formal imagination, inventive plotting, or technical acuity.

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So, is Tom Holland's Spider-Man in Morbius? (digitalspy.com)

Morbius is certainly set within the Sony Spider-Man universe as there are nods to Venom and notable villains, including Chameleon and Rhino. These generally ...

Of course, that doesn't rule out a crossover in future, but it doesn't happen in this movie. Spider-Man doesn't show up in any way in the new movie, and that includes the long-shot of Andrew Garfield or Tobey Maguire appearances. This sets up the second credit scene where Vulture meets with Morbius and name-checks the webslinger.

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Morbius review: Jared Leto plays himself in a bloody quick time event (The Verge)

Director Daniel Espinosa's Morbius — out April 1st — rips the classic Spider-Man villain out of Marvel's comic just to put him in a movie drained of all ...

But what does feel distinct to Morbius as a movie is the degree to which it’s willing to depict disabled people as frail, weak victims whose entire lives are defined in relation to the able-bodied. The implication, of course, being that Sony’s not through yet. In another universe, Morbius would dig a bit deeper into what might have been an interesting premise: the eccentric founder of a synthetic blood company becomes a pseudo-vampire who also moonlights as a superhero. But in this universe, the movie opts for the road more traveled — one paved with flashy VFX, opaque character motivations, and a climactic action sequence that plays like an overlong quick time event. Morbius doesn’t really try to detail how bat DNA is supposed to factor into Morbius’ condition or explain how he manages to transport hundreds of bats back to his laboratory after willingly walking into a swarm of them in the dramatic scene from the movie’s trailers. Morbius dives headfirst into the already-in-progress origin story of its titular ghoul, Michael Morbius (Jared Leto), a brilliant scientist and lifelong sufferer of a chronic blood disorder.

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'Morbius' Review: Jared Leto Is the Other Bat, Man (The New York Times)

Jared Leto bares his teeth as a neo-vampire who walks by day and tries to keep his monstrous thirst at bay in the latest Marvel adaptation.

And while most of it is as predictably familiar as expected, it does something unusual for a movie like this: It entertains you, rather than bludgeons you into submission. Leto’s history of needless showboating (as in that wreck “ House of Gucci”) may not have boded well, but he fits the role and delivers an actual performance, not just shtick and brooding poses. One of the revelations of “Morbius” — the latest movie to take a marginal Marvel character out of mothballs for his blockbuster close-up — is that regular blood smoothies do wonders for the skin. Milo grows up to become a louche moneybags played by Matt Smith, who’s best known for playing Prince Philip in “The Crown,” a bit of casting history that gives his role here amusing tang. After a leisurely flashback to his sad childhood, Morbius is back in his New York lab, experimenting and knitting brows alongside a colleague, Monica (Adria Arjona). It also runs under two hours, i.e., a full hour less than that recent slugfest “ The Batman.” I mean, what’s not to like?

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'Morbius' Post Credits Scenes Reek Of Desperation (Forbes)

Morbius tries to set up a cinematic universe to rival the MCU, alienating the audience in the process.

Considering how tightly controlled and perfectly calibrated the MCU is, it’s pretty astonishing that Sony has managed to hijack it for its own ends, confusing fans of both franchises. Morbius also has no reason to dislike Spider-Man - in fact, it’s not clear if Spidey even exists in this universe. The second scene sees Morbius driving down a highway, then getting out of his car to meet Vulture, who is now equipped with his high-tech jetpack suit.

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Morbius review: Marvel Studios' vampire wants what Venom has (Polygon)

Morbius, Sony's latest Marvel film based on a Spider-Man villain following Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, does very little to mimic Tom Hardy's ...

(If it wasn’t, someone probably would have asked him to say “human/bat chimera” out loud, and re-consider whether the experiment was a good idea.) With the help of colleague and love interest Dr. Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona), Morbius “accidentally” turns himself into a Living Vampire — basically a regular vampire, but without the traditional church allergies. Morbius is what happens when there’s a studio desire for another Venom, but without much thought as to how Venom connected with anyone. Dr. Morbius, we’re told, is one of the world’s foremost scientific minds, having developed a blue-tinged artificial blood that has “saved more lives than penicillin.” Yet he still has not found a cure for his disease — something he desperately wants, not for his own sake, but for his childhood friend Milo (Matt Smith), who suffers from the same disease and funds Morbius’ research through his wealth. Milo dances and preens every moment he’s on camera, in a performance that’s only marred by the CGI makeover both leads get when they vamp up, a choice that doesn’t seem much better than Buffy the Vampire Slayer-style prosthetics. Morbius is the kind of magic you’d want to keep a lid on: a two-hour spell that makes viewers forget it actually stars Jared Leto, one of the few men alive in danger of being too interesting, thanks to his widely publicized overcommitment to Method acting and a public persona that frequently evokes “benevolent cult leader” vibes. And a movie that apes Venom without an unpredictable performance at the center, it turns out, is a pretty lousy time.

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Morbius review — vampiric Marvel movie is a bloody mess (Financial Times)

Jared Leto is the scientist-turned-anti-hero in a diabolical shambles that suggests carnage in the edit suite.

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Jared Leto is Marvel's bat-man in the vampiric 'Morbius' (NPR)

Marvel Cinematic Universe's latest superhero is not, in the conventional sense, either "super" or a "hero," but he does have an unorthodox ailment and a ...

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Morbius Post-Credits Scenes Explained | Den of Geek (Den of Geek US)

This article contains Morbius spoilers. Ever since Marvel Studios began the tradition of including extra scenes during or after the end credits of its ...

We’ll have to see what happens if Morbius underperforms, although at least one more Arad-produced movie, Kraven the Hunter, is already in production and an inexplicable Madame Web film is on the way as well. Arad certainly deserves credit for his role in saving Marvel Comics and launching what became Marvel Studios in the period from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s. The implication is that this Toomes suddenly was transported from his cell in a different universe–presumably the MCU universe where was jailed at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming–and ended up here. Suddenly out of the sky appears Toomes in his full Vulture regalia (or at least a CG version of him since we never see Keaton’s face again). The Vulture expresses something to the effect that he doesn’t know how he got here, but he thinks it “has something do with Spider-Man.” A scene showing Morbius walking past a Spider-Man poster on a city wall–also seen in trailers–is also missing from the movie. In Morbius, Dr. Michael Morbius ( Jared Leto) is experimenting with a serum derived from vampire bat DNA to cure a rare blood disorder that he suffers from.

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Morbius's two post-credits scenes and the MCU, explained (Vox)

The violet cracks in the sky symbolize the multiverse breaking, and with this credits scene, the implication is that Morbius (Jared Leto) and his world (which ...

Yet with this bombshell cameo (which was teased in one of its trailers), it can’t help but feel a little like the credits scene and potential sequel are more important than anything that just happened in Morbius. All this universe-colliding stuff is a big deal because it’s how Marvel and Sony have addressed the film rights of various characters. The second scene picks up where the first one leaves off, and features Morbius meeting up with a free Toomes. The Vulture wants to recruit our living vampire into some kind of supervillain posse. Morbius has two credits scenes, one for every year that the movie was delayed! Morbius’s first credits scene features the purple time rift seen in Spider-Man: No Way Home. In that movie, Doctor Strange has to put the world back together to stop the multiverse from collapsing on itself. But since Toomes hasn’t been convicted of any crimes in Morbius’s world, we see him exonerated and freed.

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'Morbius' end credits scenes explained: MCU's Sinister Six (Los Angeles Times)

How do the 'Morbius' credits scenes set up 'Sinister Six,' and how do they tie into the MCU? Read on and excelsior!

By the way, neither of these credits scenes are the Morbius-Toomes encounter from the January 2020 trailer, which showed them meeting as they passed in an alley (with Keaton delivering the “What’s up, doc?” line). That scene is not in the current film. Then Toomes (Keaton) finds himself in a prison cell in the continuity of “Morbius,” followed by news reports that he’s sure to be released after having just appeared out of nowhere. Toomes, in his full Vulture armor — including the mask that could conveniently excuse Keaton from filming, I’m just saying — shows up, thanks Morbius for meeting him and says they should band together to “do some good.” In the first scene, we see the familiar multiverse rift from “No Way Home” over the New York skyline. Now the MCU’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” multiverse fracture has thrown open the doors for pretty much any Spidey villain to wind up in the Six. If there can be said to be a classic Sinister Six lineup, it would include Doctor Octopus, the Vulture, Electro, Kraven, Mysterio and Sandman.

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It's a Bird! It's a Bat! It's Morbius' Mid-Credits Scenes, Explained (Vulture)

An analysis of the two mid-credits (or post-credits) scenes in Marvel and Sony's latest Spider-Man spinoff Morbius, starring Jared Leto as Dr. Michael ...

All we can say for sure is that nothing in either mid-credits scene contradicts No Way Home, and there is clearly more to this story and the rules of the multiverse that we’ll hopefully see explained across future films. No Way Home’s post-credits scene may have already hinted at a flaw in the spell, given that when Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is transported back to his world, a piece of the Venom symbiote gets left behind in the MCU. So clearly, not every living creature who was aware that Peter Parker is Spider-Man got sent back. The question of how Toomes was transported from the MCU to the SSU has puzzled some viewers, since Strange’s spell at the end of No Way Home supposedly only reverted the villains who had breached the multiverse back to their original dimensions. We just don’t know yet; as Strange tells Peter (Tom Holland) in No Way Home, “The multiverse is a concept about which we know frighteningly little.” The same goes for Marvel’s rules on magic. I don’t know how I got here … something to do with Spider-Man. I’m thinking of putting a team together. The anchor reports that a hearing has been set, which “could likely lead to his immediate release.” Toomes is then escorted into a police car by several officers.

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'Morbius' Is a Curse (The Ringer)

Sony Pictures' superhero efforts have varied wildly in success, but their latest deserves a stake through its heart.

Morbius goes about crossing off all the things that audiences expect from a superhero movie—the origin story, the villain with a personal relationship to the protagonist, the journey of learning to embrace new powers—with all the enthusiasm of a routine colonoscopy. Of course, this also wouldn’t be the first time that Jared Leto showed up in a superhero blockbuster with a host of villains—and we know how well that went. He was one of the most entertaining performers of 2021, turning in performances in The Little Things and House of Gucci that stole the show from the likes of Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, and Lady Gaga. Had he brought half the chaotic energy he did to playing a creepy serial killer suspect or a paunchy failson to Morbius, the film could’ve been watchable—perhaps even worthy of a so-bad-it’s-good sequel. But Leto’s antihero is surprisingly muted and devoid of any charisma, whether he’s sharing scenes with a supposed love interest or a childhood best friend turned villain with an impressive net worth that is never explained. If the film’s two mid-credits scenes featuring (minor spoiler alert) Michael Keaton’s Vulture are any indication, this isn’t the last we’ll see of Dr. Michael Morbius, who could find himself sharing screen time with other Spider-Man villains in the near future. And so, along with his colleague and possible romantic interest Dr. Martine Bancroft—a character whom actress Adria Arjona earnestly compared to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—Morbius tests the cure on himself in exotic international waters (a.k.a., 16 miles off the coast of Long Island). Suffice it to say, it doesn’t go well—as in, Morbius turns into a vampiric man-beast who drains the blood of everyone aboard the ship aside from Bancroft. At the start of the movie, we see Dr. Michael Morbius (Leto) capture a group of vampire bats in the jungles of Costa Rica, hoping to splice their DNA with that of humans to cure his blood disorder. But the greatest virtue of the Sony-produced Marvel movies—their sheer unpredictability—can also be a curse, much like a Nobel Prize–winning doctor discovering a cure for a rare blood disease that turns him into a living vampire. The sad truth is that Venom might’ve followed a similar path if it weren’t for Hardy hijacking the project by jumping in a lobster tank and being a complete weirdo on every level. [Licks the blood off the man’s face.] That injury will require an external nose splint administered by a medical professional. The Andrew Garfield–led Spider-Man franchise was so underwhelming that the studio turned to Marvel Studios when rebooting the character—and the Kevin Feige–approved Tom Holland era has been considerably better—while the Venom films have emerged as a horny, chaotic celebration of symbiote-human companionship. As the owner of the film rights to Spider-Man and the extensive library of comic book characters associated with the superhero, Sony has created many of its own Marvel movies, and the results have been all over the place.

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Morbius (Empire)

Medical genius Dr Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) is slowly dying from a blood disorder. In search of a cure, funded by childhood friend Milo (Matt Smith) and ...

His superspeed is signified by a trailing haze around him, which doesn’t entirely work, but the use of slow-mo to pick moments out of the hectic set-pieces is effective — an extended fight and flight through a subway station being a particular standout. It’s saying something when your most grounded performance in years is as a superhuman vampire, but that is strangely true of Jared Leto, here finding a quiet sincerity that’s far less showy than the distracting accents ( House Of Gucci) and messianic tendencies ( WeCrashed) of more recent roles. Unlike the hapless Eddie Brock, the other anti-hero of a franchise once unfortunately named the Sony Pictures Universe Of Marvel Characters (or ‘SPUMC’), Dr Michael Morbius is actively looking for his superpower.

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Jared Leto is Marvel's bat-man in the vampiric 'Morbius' (Boise State Public Radio)

An ailing biochemist aims to cure himself of a debilitating illness, but ends up infecting himself with vampirism in the Marvel movie Morbius.

Not unlike Venom, Morbius was a bad guy when he first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man comics, back in the 1970's. He needs to be at least an anti-hero now, if a franchise is to be built around him. At one point, Morbius overhears some counterfeiters passing fake $100s, and commandeers their printing press to make what appears to be an artificial-blood machine — because the technologies for fake-bills and fake-blood match up? But Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) is looking to capture smaller game as he approaches the mouth of a cave, hobbling with difficulty on two crutch-like canes. Except this is a man whose hair has the kind of sheen that comes from brushing it three times a day. Born with a rare blood disease, Michael Morbius has spent his entire life working on two things — a cure, and origami paper-folding. His name is Morbius, and while watching his origin story, you may get the feeling that somewhere in the cinematic multiverse, wires got crossed.

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Image courtesy of "Inverse"

'Morbius' post-credits explained: How Sony's Spider-Man spinoff ... (Inverse)

'Morbius' has connections to the Marvel Cinematic Universe that sets up a Spider-Man showdown, but the scenes are puzzling.

There’s maybe a Peter Parker, but if there is he’s not Spider-Man. That doesn’t stop Vulture from name-dropping him like a LinkedIn contact, and somehow Morbius is immediately into the idea of beating him up. The second scene, which could also be mistaken for a luxury car commercial starring Jared Leto, has Morbius drive to a remote area. During the multiversal fracturing, Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) ends up in the Morbius/Venom universe. That last part is important, because here’s where the Morbius scene stops making sense. There are no scenes after the credits, but stick around to acknowledge the hard-working industry employees who deserved better than having to make Morbius. Yes, Morbius has two credits scenes.

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Image courtesy of "Vox"

Morbius sucks the fun and charm out of the vampire story (Vox)

Jared Leto as the character Morbius in a chemistry lab. Jared Leto is a vampire in STEM, in Morbius. Courtesy of Sony. Over the last ...

Primed by the culmination of two years of Morbius trailers or spending the better part of an hour and a half watching Jared Leto slurp down blood bags like a college freshman, I could not believe Morbius was really all wrapping up like this. It dawned on me that there’s probably going to be a sequel, or some tie-in; that this horrendous thing was maybe just really the beginning. The five minutes or so in which this all happens borders on psychotic; I found myself hollering an obscene and inhuman hoot — a gurgling death rattle from the last vestiges of my sanity. Michael Morbius is a genius doctor who has assembled a team of unnamed characters to travel, by helicopter, to Costa Rica’s Cerro de la Muerte, which translates into English as “The Mountain of Death.” We do not get much more information on how much killing the mountain has done. A lot of vampire tales complicate the problem of taking on a fairly reprehensible form of being by ensuring their bloodsuckers are intoxicatingly charismatic. Compared to the great lengths that Morbius went to to reach Costa Rica’s Cerro de la Muerte, a jaunty sprint to the waters just beyond Fire Island seems a little silly, comical even. Morbius’s gimmick is that Morbius is now essentially a vampire, but without any tether to existing mythology. The international waters in question end up being a Panamanian cargo ship 12 miles off the coast of Long Island. If Morbius was a person you were supposed to have a date with who kept postponing, at this point you’d both agree to just forget the other existed. However, we do learn that Morbius is trying to capture a bunch of vampire bats to take home with him to New York City. He slices his palm open, blood drips down, and thousands of bats come shooting out of the cave trying to lick his pale little hand. This state of eternally “coming soon” was due to the numerous delays the movie has faced. Over the last two very long years, nothing has been made more clear than the fact that the world we live in is devoid of constants.

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Image courtesy of "CNBC"

Spider-Man spin-off 'Morbius' with Jared Leto is 'lazy,' 'not good' and ... (CNBC)

Many reviews noted that the film did not live up to the promises made in the trailer for a horror/thriller superhero film with ties to other Spider-Man films.

In the film, Leto portrays biochemist Michael Morbius, who is trying to cure himself of a rare blood disease. As Adam Graham of the Detroit News notes in his review of the film, the studio's desire to expand its Spider-Man lore is understandable. Graham is not alone in his assessment of the Jared Leto-led film.

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Image courtesy of "Forbes"

Here Are The 'Morbius' Vulture Post-Credits Scenes So You Don't ... (Forbes)

Morbius has arrived and is currently sitting as one of the worst-reviewed superhero movies…ever. That means you may not want to actually see Morbius, ...

The public didn’t know the multiverse stuff was directly connected to Spider-Man, so why would Toomes know that? Originally, it seems as if Toomes and Morbius’ interaction was supposed to take place in a different context, which is why some of the lines from the trailer did not make it into the final film. A main problem with the way things were changed was that because everything got carved up and was forced to integrate the events of No Way Home means that almost nothing about it makes sense. It seems the very, very large amount of delays which pushed Morbius to be released after Spider-Man: No Way Home is what caused these final scenes to be so seemingly random. It’s more like they stole Toomes from the MCU rather than added Morbius to the MCU, which was more the original implication. All of this seems…pretty poorly mapped out at the moment, including Toomes’ clumsy inclusion here in the post-credits sequence which was advertised as a main selling point of the movie in order to generate “oh hey Morbius is connected to the MCU!” buzz, which seems pretty misleading now.

Film review: Morbius mixes the best of bat, man (National Post)

Jared Leto stars as the latest Marvel comics character to hit the big screen.

By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You may unsubscribe any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails. Sign up to receive the daily top stories from the National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. There was an error, please provide a valid email address. Take a look at a list of five things Calgarians can get up to This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. His character’s wildly impractical, questionably safe and certainly illegal wafting around in front of a subway train is worth the price of admission. One more item in favour of Morbius. On the negative side, a pair of mid-credit scenes that add a needless layer of confusion while basically promising a sequel. Secondary characters include Jared Harris (it’s a two-Jared movie!) as Morbius’s childhood doctor and friend, the aforementioned Smith as his benefactor, and Tyrese Gibson and Al Madrigal as FBI agents Stroud and Rodriguez, the latter introducing audiences to the word exsanguinated. Abraham Lincoln was a vampire killer. Blade was a vampire killer. You know, in case you thought Morbius was, like so many other superhero stories, a one-and-done. Of course, anyone who’s familiar with gamma radiation, super serums or alien artifacts will know that Morbius is headed for trouble with his experiments, well meaning though they may be. He has a rare blood disease, and so he experiments on vampire bats, splicing their DNA with his own. He can leap so high he can practically fly, and even riled-up bats don’t seem troubled by him.

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