Jared Leto’s new movie, Morbius, has arrived in theatres which means reviews are flooding in – however, they all seem to be, well, terrible.
The movie starring Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Jared Harris, and Adria Arjona is the latest Marvel film from Sony Pictures studios – rather than the MCU part of Disney – and has finally hit cinemas, but critics are just not loving it.
What is ‘Morbius’?
The movie tells the origin story of biochemist Dr. Michael Morbius, played by Leto, as he is determined to help both himself and his lifelong friend Milo (Smith) get a cure for a rare blood disease they both have, but when his experiment goes horribly wrong, he inadvertently infects himself with a form of vampirism instead.
Fans of the comic books and of Spider-Man will remember him for his interactions with the web-slinger, which meant they’ve probably been pretty excited the anti-hero got a solo film, but after delays due to COVID and release date pushbacks, is it worth the wait?
Critics Don’t Love Morbius
The Independent is first up and they did not pay kind words to the movie. Clarisse Loughrey called it a ‘flavourless product’ in her review.
She said: ‘It can’t be described as the wild, untethered disaster that some were secretly hoping for, either, because that would imply some level of creative risk. No, this is the flavourless product of far too many board meetings, where anything offered by director Daniel Espinosa has been whittled down to the level of pure “content”.
‘I’m not sure it’s even meant to function as a film in the traditional sense. It’s more a two-hour prelude to a post-credit scene, which happens to be one of the most sloppily written teases ever committed to screen. Morbius also doesn’t have an ending. It simply cuts to the credits when everyone’s had enough.’ – ouch.
The Guardian reporter wasn’t much kinder as he said the character was ‘bafflingly dull’ when it came to his powers.
Peter Bradshaw wrote: ‘With a snarl, with a roar, with a facial morph into horrible sub-Voldemort nasal loss and then back to being handsome, the Marvel superhero-vampire Morbius is with us. And sadly his superpower is being bafflingly dull.’ He also went on to say the film felt like a let down.
Other outlets haven’t been more flattering to the movie as Brian Truitt, from USA Today, described it as: ‘Rather than a fang-tastic time, Morbius is just a soul-sucking effort.’
David Rooney, from The Hollywood Reporter, said the film ‘takes itself too seriously to have much fun with the mayhem’ but he did compliment Arjona’s performance and said Leto was ‘brooding’ well in the movie.
Last on my list – but, unfortunately there’s more bad reviews out there- Variety described the film as a ‘vampire supervillain origin story that’s neither original nor a good story’.
If critics are anything to go by the film isn’t likely to be on the Oscar nominations for 2023 – but with people wanting to know if the movie is just as bad as critics are saying, they may flock to cinemas and the box office might just do well.