Morbius Review

Logan Zimmerman, Photography Editor

The newest addition into the Marvel Universe has just been released and it is a trainwreck. There’s a reason why it was released on April 1st. Morbius was one of the most underwhelming and unsatisfying movies I’ve ever watched in my life. It was filled with extremely cheesy dialogue and at times terrible line delivery. The trailer was more interesting and had a better arc than the movie itself did, with most of the interesting scenes from the trailer removed in the final cut.

The movie had a decently strong start but very quickly headed south. It showed how two young boys who were born with bloodborne diseases became lifelong friends and how they were both trying to do their part to find a cure so no one would ever have to suffer like them again. Flash forward to Dr. Michael Morbius, he’s a world renowned doctor known for his creation of artificial blood used for transplants. It then shows Dr. Morbius at the mouth of a cave in Central America, giving us a very “Batman” like feel. What follows is extremely confusing because while he’s shown at the mouth of the cave he’s still very ill. After that we flash back to six months ago where we are shown how he “cured” himself. It just didn’t connect as to the fact that we saw him ill and then flashed back to when he was healthy. 

In the trailer we saw Officer Simon Shroud played by Tyrese Gibson holding an open cut on his neck and we can only assume he’s talking to Dr. Morbius because he says the line, “You save lives you don’t take them.” In the movie that scene is nowhere to be found. Although we do still see the scar on the side of Officer Shroud’s neck in a few scenes, it is never explained where it came from. 

The villain arc is also extremely far-fetched and illogical. The boy that Michael grew up with was named Milo. Milo had the same disease that Michael did and Michael saved his life when they were in the orphanage together. After Milo found out that Michael had found a cure, he wanted some for himself so he would be able to live a normal life. Michael wouldn’t give it to him because he didn’t want his best friend to turn into a “vampire” like he was. Milo took it himself anyway without Michael knowing and began murdering innocent people because of the blood lust that the “cure” had given him. Milo is shown killing their lifelong caretaker, protector, and father figure, Dr. Nicholas, in an extremely absurd scene. It makes no sense for him to do that because all Dr. Nicholas had done his entire life was to make sure Milo was safe and healthy. The final fight scene with Michael and Milo was extremely disappointing and anti-climactic, leaving you with a very unsatisfied feeling after watching it. The last thing, if you listen closely at the end of the movie while Micheal is flying away, you’ll hear a very familiar score. They reused the same song that was used in Christian Bale’s  “The Dark Knight” trilogy but just remixed It. 

The post credit scenes unfortunately weren’t any better either. If anything, it made the movie more confusing. Obviously Morbius is a Spider-Man villain in the comics but the way they set it up in the post credits was very odd.

The few upsides of the movie I would say is the cinematics and the first person POV in some scenes. The way the echo location was portrayed to the audience was spectacular. It gave us a very good idea of how he was able to see and hear what was going on even if it was across the city. The first person POV was cool to see whether you were Morbius or if you were getting attacked by him. 

Overall I would say the movie is a 5/10 at best. Jared Leto played the role as best as he could and I think he did a great job considering. I just feel like every movie he’s in, he has an extremely cheesy script and can’t shine as the main character because he’s drowned out by terrible dialogue and even worse writing.