The “Venom” films feature fights that look like entangled silly string monsters. But those are alien symbiotes, so that makes a certain sense. “Morbius,” now available for home viewing, finds Jared Leto’s title character and a rival vampire zinging amid curiously dark and empty skyscrapers with wispy color trails behind them, a la the lesser-known superhero flick “Push.”
A cure, a curse, and computers
Put simply, “Morbius” switches to video-game action imagery whenever Morbius moves with batlike speed. It’s a cliché to say a film relies too much on special effects, but when a film so brazenly does exactly that, I have to point it out.
“Morbius” is about a scientist (Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius) who obsessively experiments on vampire bats, cures his ailment with injections derived from their blood, and of course becomes a vampire. Leto, the latest actor to appear in both the DC and Marvel universes (he was the Joker in “Suicide Squad”), tries his darndest to sell the tragedy of a man whose cure is a curse.
“Morbius” (2022)
Director: Daniel Espinosa
Writers: Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless
Stars: Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona
Despite the importance of vampire bats in Morbius’ work, we never get a good look at a vampire bat in the movie, only CGI swarms. Whenever the film develops some weight thanks to Leto or a location such as a forest cave, it’s yanked back by indicators that many sequences were digitally constructed.
The film’s regular disconnections from reality are unfortunate, because there’s something otherwise stylish about this adaptation of the Marvel Comics character who debuted in 1971. When it’s just actors on a screen, “Morbius” is like a stage play with Leto, Matt Smith and Jared Harris acting out an old morality tale.
Vampires via science
Folks wanting a fresh take on vampire lore won’t be blown away; this is fairly standard stuff where Morbius needs to drink blood to survive. He becomes primal when driven by hunger, but he’s a good guy, and he certainly doesn’t want to bite lover and fellow doctor Martine (Adria Arjona).
In a slightly different spin, “Morbius’ ” vampire lore derives from scientific experiments, so there isn’t an ancient supernatural angle. The “Dracula” books exist in this world – as does the movie “The Notebook” — but Martine looks up the “wooden stake through the heart” rule in a book.
So we can’t say this is precisely our world with “Buffy,” “True Blood,” “Twilight” and “The Vampire Diaries.” Or perhaps Morbius and Martine spend so much time in the lab they don’t notice pop culture.
As also seen in the “Venom” films (likewise part of the Sony Spider-verse), the world of “Morbius” doesn’t go much beyond its core characters. Government detective Rodriguez (Al Madrigal, infusing some flavor) references events in San Francisco from “Venom,” but that’s about it. (“Morbius” takes place in New York, I think.)
Into the Sony-verse
Good for Sony for doing its own Spider-verse films rather than letting Disney have all the glory. But it can’t be denied that it doesn’t do this stuff as effectively. The core events of “Morbius” are so typical and forgettable that more online fan chatter comes from the mid-credits stingers.
(SPOILERS FOLLOW.)
After “Spider-Man: No Way Home” linked the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Sony universe via a multiverse, this is less remarkable than it used to be. But it’s still kinda wild that Michael Keaton’s Vulture from “Spider-Man: Homecoming” pops up at the end of “Morbius.” He’s been transported into the Sony-verse as a side effect of “No Way Home.”
So it’s hinted that Vulture and Morbius will team up. Maybe it’s my imagination, but Leto seems less engaged in that stinger scene than in what came before. In the abstract, the idea doesn’t make sense, as Vulture leans toward bad and Morbius leans toward good. But we’ll see where it goes.
As for “Morbius” itself, I admire Leto’s professional effort, but he can’t lift the whole film to his level – even after the good doctor learns to fly.