Movie Review: Morbius (2022)

Synopsis: Stricken with a disabling blood disease since childhood, Dr. Michael Morbius seeks to cure it by splicing vampire bat and human DNA. His illegal experiment works but also turns him into a living vampire that needs human blood to survive.

Who's in it? The movie stars Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris and Tyrese Gibson.

Review: Since my mom's birthday was on Tuesday, we delayed our family movie night until last night and, after scrolling through several options, my daughter and I decided to give this one a try, both from the description and who starred in it. It was an OK film but not quite what I was expecting it to be.

I was never into comic books so, while I had heard of Morbius, I didn't really know a whole lot about the Marvel character, including whether he was a hero, villain or anti-hero. Unfortunately, I think this was a movie that really only works if you're already invested in the title character.

I think this movie would have been a lot better had the filmmakers just focused on Morbius's (Leto) origin story and his efforts to control the side effects of his cure while avoiding those who wanted to arrest him for murder. That personal struggle was intriguing, especially when you had his assistant, Martine (Arjona) remaining by his side despite the danger to herself and would have benefitted those of us who really don't know much about him from the comic books.

Instead, the movie tries to slip in a nemesis, Milo (Smith) and is ultimately forced to water down the more interesting parts as a result. This probably wouldn't have been a big deal had the Milo storyline been even remotely interesting. But Milo was very one dimensional and that part of the movie was extremely predictable and even a little dull. I think all three of us lost interest by the final battle.

Final Opinion: The filmmakers really needed to pick one direction with this film. They either needed to make it a detailed origin story for those of us who don't know who the character is, or they should have made it an action film for those who already were familiar with him. Doing both with such a short runtime just didn't work in my opinion. I didn't hate it, but it also didn't make me an instant fan of the character like other Marvel superhero movies have.

My Grade: C+