Morbius Review: This Vampire Movie Figuratively Lacked Life

Morbius, despite the several delays that it saw throughout its production, finally got released but failed to receive the same kind of hype that some of the other Sony Marvel movies have seen in the past. Of course, it’s easy to understand why it didn’t have the same kind of hype that came with Venom, who is one of the most popular villains in the entire Spider-Man franchise.

With that said, Morbius starts out with a short origin of some sort as we got to learn more about Michael Morbius’ past and why he was desperate to find a cure to a rare disease that he and his best friend Loxias/Milo were suffering from. Without getting too much into the science, Morbius suffers from a genetic disease that made his body frail and weak and would have kept his life short.

The backstory began during Morbius’ childhood when he started bonding with Milo when they were both held in a facility that treated their disease. However, when it was discovered that Morbius was gifted with great intelligence, he was sent off to New York to study there, as he promised his childhood friend that he would someday find a cure for their disease.

Back in the present day, Morbius used rare vampire bats found in Costa Rica to use them for an experimental cure that could fill in the missing piece in Morbius’ genetic sequence. He succeeded in the trials using mice, and the only logical step was to conduct human trials that started off with him.

Morbius and his colleague Martine Bancroft had to conduct the trial on international waters for legal purposes. The trial did indeed succeed but in a manner that was unexpected because Morbius transformed into a creature that killed and sucked the blood out of the crew of the ship they were on. 

Back in New York, Morbius conducted tests on himself using the artificial blood that he himself invented and by trying out what he could do with his newfound abilities. He was, in every sense, a vampire because he was faster, stronger, and more agile than any human being. On top of that, he had the ability to use his enhanced senses to his advantage. But the cost was that he had a limit on how long he could go with the artificial blood without transforming into a rabid vampiric creature. 

Milo heard about this and pleaded with Morbius to give him the serum, only to get denied by his best friend because he didn’t want him to become the same kind of beast that he had transformed into.

Nevertheless, things got complicated when one of the nurses in the hospital he was working in got killed, and all fingers were pointed at Morbius, who got incarcerated. That was when he discovered that Milo had taken the serum and was going on a killing spree in New York because he believed that he had taken the next step towards evolution, all while Morbius was holding himself back from what he had become.

That said, it became a cliché best friend vs. best friend/brother vs. brother narrative that forced Morbius and Martine to find a way to stop Milo from killing. Of course, like any movie with a clear protagonist, Morbius did indeed succeed while discovering that he had the power to actually control bats, and the movie ended with Martine becoming a vampire herself and with Morbius going on the run from the authorities.

Like any Marvel movie, the two post-credit scenes involved the MCU’s Adrian Toomes (the Vulture), who got transported to Sony Marvel Spider-verse, which turns out to be the same universe where Venom and Morbius exist. And the second post-credit scene involved the Vulture proposing a collaboration with Morbius, which could eventually open up the plot for a Sinister Six movie.

As promising as Morbius could have been, this isn’t the first time that an antihero movie involving Jared Leto failed to live up to expectations. His run as the Joker in the first Suicide Squad movie wasn’t received very well, and while he did better as Michael Morbius, the film just didn’t feel like it had the “it” factor that could keep viewers glued on the screen, wondering what will happen next.

We get that this isn’t an MCU movie, and we watched the film without the expectation of it becoming similar to an MCU film. But the problem is that the plot seemed to be a bit all over the place while introducing common clichés that we often see in plenty of different superhero, action, and horror movies. In a sense, the characters and themes were quite new, but the plot and the narrative were vanilla.

Then there’s the fact that Loxias/Milo is a character that doesn’t seem to have a clear motive for being the douche that he was throughout the movie. We get that he suffered a bad childhood due to the fact that he was different from other kids, and we also know that he couldn’t have a normal adult life because of his illness. Nevertheless, the lack of a moral compass on his part wasn’t clearly established in the film.

There’s also Morbius himself, who was desperate enough to do the unspeakable just so he could find a cure but suddenly developed a moral compass when he turned into the living vampire. There was no clear motive on his part, although we do know that he was just looking to survive and to stop Milo from wreaking havoc.

It seems as if Sony and Columbia Pictures were just looking to use Morbius as an opportunity to introduce the Sinister Six in later installments of the Sony Spider-verse. Despite being less than ideal and lacking the life and 

There were still good parts in the film, as it proved to be a standout in terms of its visual and sound effects. But not even the effects could save the film from bland fighting scenes involving two superpowered vampires. Of course, no amount of visuals and sounds could salvage a film that seemed a bit incoherent in its plot and approach.

Score: 4/10

Morbius is now out in theaters in select areas across the globe!