Managing to topple The Lost City from its short-lived number one spot at the box office, Morbius is the film that has quickly become the kind of “masterpiece of badness” that everyone loves to hate/mock. And mock they did via the #MorbiusSweep hashtag that began trending on Twitter as a means to jokingly reinvent the true critical reception of the film, as well as the amount the movie grossed during its opening weekend.
While not exactly “peanuts,” the figure in question—thirty-nine million—seems that way to a studio like Marvel, with Sony having projected an opening weekend of as high as fifty million. To “under-perform”—while still securing the number one spot—is bad enough for a movie of this type (one with such an inherently “built-in audience”), but the searing reviews haven’t helped the movie much either. And yet, maybe they have. For those who read them ahead of time, or see the Rotten Tomatoes score, will be expecting so much worse. Gigli-level terrible. But honestly, it’s not that bad. Or not any worse than any studio-shilled schlock that gets released year in, year out. In fact, one could even say that this particular Jared Leto vehicle is far more enjoyable to watch than House of Gucci. Because, at least in this, you get to see Leto say shit like, “Near death is very chic. I read it in Cosmo… is Cosmo still around?” and “I’m very hungry. And you don’t want to see me hungry.”
Then there’s the presence of Matt Smith to enjoy. While many will still associate him primarily with playing Prince Philip on The Crown, he’s now fine-tuning the villainous role he served us in Last Night in Soho. In Morbius, that villainousness takes on the form of Lucien a.k.a. “Milo.” The nickname that Michael Morbius (Leto) gives to every boy who ends up joining him in the hospital in Greece. Run by Dr. Emil Nicholas (Jared Harris, another alum of The Crown).
Accustomed to every person in the bed next to him “leaving” at some point, Michael seems to adopt a more brotherly fondness for this Milo right away. Perhaps spurred by the fact that he’s put in a position to save his life when a nurse doesn’t come in time to fix the “blood-dispensing machine.” Because yes, both Morbiuses have a “rare blood disease.” The kind that makes each character yearn to be “normal” and live as the children they see outside their hospital window do. It is after Nicholas learns of what Morbius is capable of (via that machine tinkering) that he recommends sending him away to a school in New York for “gifted children.” Despite having only just met Milo, Morbius is somewhat reluctant to abandon him—but makes up for it by leaving one of his signature origami animals with a note written inside. One that blows out the window and into the wind so that we can be given one of those painful-to-watch bullying scenes that occurs whenever “strong” kids see weaker ones to take advantage of. Naturally, this sets the tone for why Milo might eventually choose to take the less righteous path when presented with an opportunity to not be sick. To take back his power, as it were. No matter the cost to human life. What did humans ever do for him, after all?
Morbius’ entire reason for being subsequently becomes about finding a cure to help Milo (we’re supposed to, apparently, ignore how much it would help him as well—the purpose being to emphasize how selfless he is). Which is why the opening sequence of the movie commences in Costa Rica, with Morbius approaching a “bat cave,” of sorts so that he can collect an ample number of “specimens” to conduct his experiment: splicing his genes with those of the bats. Because, why not? Marvel doesn’t have their own “Batman,” and this is the closest they’re going to get. Which is why it’s even more “poignant” that Michael Keaton should show up for the mid-credits scene…as Vulture.
It bears noting that when we’re first introduced to Leto, the perfect person to play a vampire, he looks like any fifty-year-old probably should, but once the effects of the experiment “successfully” take hold, he looks like, well, Jared Leto. The first to bring Morbius, the Living Vampire from comic book to screen, Leto is taking the promotional blitzkrieg for the movie seriously, appearing on talk shows like The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Where Fallon did his own brilliant acting job of pretending not to have seen any reviews. He comments to Leto, “He’s neither good nor evil I would say.” “No, he’s something in between… That delicate dance between good and evil,” Leto says to Fallon with a knowing smile. One that’s particularly eerie considering the resurfaced allegations about his misconduct with women, particularly underage/generally youthful ones. All stemming from his photo ops with Olivia Rodrigo at the Grammys. Leto then describes of Morbius, “He becomes strong and powerful and then ultimately monstrous.” Sounds like any number of dictators running the world right now. Or any sexual predators in the movie and music biz.
And yes, these types of assessments of the character do draw overt parallels to Robert Louis Stevenson’s iconic work, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The constant battle within every man—and yes, we’re conditioned to believe that only men should have this allowance for duality—that usually finds their dastardly side winning out.
Derivative or not (especially with its many The Matrix-inspired sequences), Morbius needn’t be so harshly maligned. Overly expository dialogue from screenwriting duo Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless be damned! Morbius is a movie with manifold layers about our frailty. How at the mercy of blood we all really are. Something that Elizabeth Holmes knew only too well in choosing to focus her startup idea on a revolutionary blood test. Granted, the blood test couldn’t actually be successfully performed, but still—her commitment to it emphasizes just how much blood is our literal lifeforce. And how bad blood can make existence so much worse.
Just like the bad blood that forms between “brothers” Milo and Michael. The latter wanting to put a kibosh on the thing he unleashed onto the world (would that whoever unleashed COVID-19 had been so concerned), while the former wants only to relish his newfound vitality. Which leads us to a very Patrick Bateman meets Andrew Cunanan type of scene where he’s dancing in his posh apartment after realizing his capabilities. Director Daniel Espinosa also clearly pays homage to the war between two kinds of men and their take on what to do with such power during a subway scene in the late second act. At “Front Street”—a station that doesn’t exist, but then, a large bulk of this production was shot in the U.K. anyway despite being a “New York movie.” It’s after Milo kills multiple police officers and slowly walks down the platform to get to Morbius that we’re given echoes of The Lost Boys by Milo calling out “Miiiicaheel” the same way David Powers (Kiefer Sutherland) does to a newly vampiric Michael Emerson (Jason Patrick). With such reverence for camp cinema past, how could anyone accuse Espinosa’s work on this of being “less than”?
As for the proverbial love interest, Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona), required in any comic-based movie, one could easily see the inevitable sequel to Morbius featuring Martine’s own “inner demon” (/bat) being unleashed. Though that might not appeal as much to the demographic that made up the sixty percent male audience willing to shell out for the sight of Jared Leto. Noticeably not dropping trou at any point to make it more worth a woman’s while. But again, still more worthwhile than House of Gucci.
