Sony’s Morbius fails to impress despite its long delay of release and apparent changes due to the MCU multiverse deal.
Morbius with all its Sony glory wasn’t able to hit the spot. Dull storytelling, an unworthy villain, and the absent horror element make the movie a one-time watch, that too only if want to follow the multiverse timeline.
Watch: Morbius Mid Credits
For a movie that introduced one of Marvel’s most prominent villains as well as one of the greatest Spider-Man villains, Morbius was not at all up to the mark. You will sit through the whole movie waiting for something to happen but it never happens. Now, what is this thing? We do not know. The movie makes us keep on anticipating a revelation or an event but then drowns it midway. Perhaps, this is a result of a poor story as well as the fact that it doesn’t really connect with the MCU multiverse.
What’s the Confusion?
Apparently, Sony hasn’t been able to decide where to keep Morbius (Jared Leto), in its own universe or the Raimi verse, or the MCU multiverse. We get a glimpse of the Daily Bugle newspaper, the same print that we saw in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. Also, Morbius himself mentions Venom which means that it can also be a part of Sony’s Spider-Man universe, the one that will supposedly have Garfield’s next outing as the friendly neighborhood Spidey.
And last but not the least, we have Adrian Toomes aka Vulture (Micheal Keaton) arriving through the cracks of the multiverse to Morbius’s universe and teaming up with him (possibly the beginning of Sinister Six). So all this adds to the confusion as to which universe does Morbius fall in.
The Morbius Villain
If you have accepted Venom without the spider symbol and a Kraven who will not interact with Spider-Man in his upcoming live-action debut, then Lucien, the villain of Morbius will not be difficult to nod to.
The character of Lucien (Milo), performed brilliantly by Matt Smith, doesn’t exist in the comic lore. It is actually a combination of different characters from the comics including Morbius’ childhood friend Emil Nikos (the first victim of Morbius’ bloodlust) and Loxias Crown AKA Hunger (IMDb-official name).
While we cannot question this step of Sony to improvise a villain, a villain with a comic origin does add to the overall arc of the main character as well. As in Spider-Man won’t be Spider-Man without the iconic villains like Green Goblin or Doctor Octopus or Venom, right? This is what was missing from Morbius, a villain with real strong roots.
The Storytelling of Morbius
Director Daniel Espinosa has seemingly taken his time to mold this movie, one that appears slow despite its “thirst” for being fast-paced. The movie doesn’t carry the edge-of-your-seat vibe that we got in Venom. The film tries to uphold the underlying horror element but doesn’t achieve it because clearly, it was never the intention. They wanted to make Morbius a supervillain, someone that the audience would take a liking to. But they weren’t able to provide him with the swagger that Venom had. Cinematography by Oliver Wood divides the movie into two parts, the action sequences, and the non-action sequences almost to the point where it seems like they are from two different movies. Basically, the film does not really feel cohesive.
The music by Jon Ekstrand is suiting. It manages to bring out the dark nature of the movie but in a heroic way. It almost sounds like the Dark Knight theme in some places. The VFX is perhaps the only good thing about the movie. Done by Digital Domain, the visual effects make you wait for the next action sequence. Sony used the same technology to create Morbius as the one used to create Thanos in Avengers: Endgame. But the fact is if the creators had put even half the amount of work they did on developing Morbius’ vampire traits to create his human traits, we would have got a strong anti-hero, almost like Venom.
The Ending
Spoiler alert! At the end of the film, we see Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona) return from the dead and become a vampire. This will surely tie into Morbius 2 or at least in Morbius’ next outing in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. The pre-credits scene and mid-credits scene are signs of the imminent arrival of the Sinister Six in the distant future of Sony’s Spider-Man universe.
But the scenes don’t make sense at all. Firstly, there is no way for Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) to turn up in another universe from the MCU universe because the Strange’s “return” spell was only meant for those who belonged to another universe. Toomes belonged to the MCU universe with Holland’s Spidey.
Again, how did he get hold of a ditto Vulture wingsuit in a different universe? Also, why would Morbius even care about entertaining Toomes whom he doesn’t know anything about? Even if Spider-Man did exist in Morbius’s universe, there’s no reason for Morbius to help Toomes bring down Spider-Man. Perhaps this is what happens when you delay a movie 6 times. It loses its connections to the other movies it shares its universe with.
Overall, Morbius has its entertaining bits. But could have been a lot better if only Sony had given more time to it, or perhaps less time.
