#REVIEW: “MORBIUS”

Review by George Kozera for Mr. Will Wong

I was strictly a DC Comics guy growing up and the only Stan Lee I read was my neighbour’s “Millie the Model” when there was nothing left to devour as I had to wait a month for the next adventures to hit the newsstands. It was the movies that truly introduced me to the Marvel Universe, but they were made for those already familiar with the characters and their backstories (I only knew Spider-Man from the Saturday morning cartoons). I eagerly awaited Sony’s screen version origin story MORBIUS. All I knew going into it was that it starred Jared Leto and the movie poster was kinda cool. What I wish I had known ahead of time was there’d be (shudder) bats.

Leto plays Dr. Michael Morbius, a brilliant Doctor who, not only declined a Nobel Prize for his development of artificial blood but works tirelessly to find a cure for a rare blood disorder that afflicts him and Milo, his best friend since they first met as children. But before we see how their childhood progressed, MORBIUS opens in the mountains somewhere in Costa Rico with Leto on crutches walking towards a cave, slices his hand open and enters the home of thousands and thousands of vampire bats that swirl around him like singing birds around a Disney Princess. My aversion to bats makes Indiana Jones’ fear of snake feel inconsequential!

Back in New York City and working alongside Dr. Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona), in a lab funded by the now super-rich adult Milo (Matt Smith from “Doctor Who” and “The Crown”), Michael is hard at work to develop a serum that is a combination of human and bat blood that could cure his affliction. After achieving success with a lab rat, he and Martine hire a cargo boat to float on international waters as they inject the serum into Michael, this time with very different results. The upswing is that Michael has superhero powers and strengths; the downsize is that it comes with creepy eyes, fangs, talons for fingernails and a need for feasting on human blood. In the first of many kinetic action sequences, Michael jumps-off the ship leaving behind a slew of drained of all their blood mercenaries and an injured Martine. While FBI agents Stroud (Tyrese Gibson) and Ramirez (Al Madrigal) investigate these brutal murders, Michael is angst ridden about what he’s turned into (a vampire with a conscience). Meanwhile, Milo has found the vials of the serum in the lab and has no such compunction and soon blood drained victims scatter the streets of Manhattan, leaving the movie audience to await its inevitable conclusion.

There’s much to enjoy watching MORBIUS. Jared Leto is the king of transformative performances and whereas in this Movie, his physical transformations are computer-generated, he portrays the character with intensity and finesse. I also appreciated how the Director, Daniel Espinosa, utilized Matt Smith distinctive physicality and made him into a villain to revel in. Other than Venom, I assumed Marvel was only about superheroes, so to be immersed in, essentially, an old-fashioned Monster Movie was an entertaining surprise.

That said, MORBIUS is second-tiered in the Cinematic Universe that is Marvel. It seriously required at least a soupcon of humour and a smidgen of romance between Michael and Martine. The action sequences were by-the-book and lacked originality, though I enjoyed the use of colours and seeing New York be traumatized. None of the supporting characters, which also include Jared Harris, had me invested.

However (and it’s a big one), the two end-credit scene snippets had me salivating and I can’t wait for the Sequel!

Sony Pictures Canada release MORBIUS April 1, 2022.