Morbius: Not Quite a Horror movie, Just Another Super-Hero Movie

By Jim Slotek

Rating: C-plus

Much like splicing human and vampire bat DNA, fusing a Marvel-associated movie and a horror film has intriguing possibilities. Though odds are it won’t take.

Morbius is a part of the Spider-Man Sony/Marvel universe. And like Venom before him, the character has variously been a Spidey villain, a hero and an anti-hero.

Dr. Michael Morbius, played here by Jared Leto, is a mad scientist of the My-God-what-have-I-done variety. He’s cursed by a genetic and chronic blood disease, and driven to find a cure – not just for himself, but for his similarly afflicted lifelong best friend Milo (Matt Smith). His approach is described above.

Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius.

Unfortunately, the anti-coagulant properties the good doctor seeks are not all that humans end up sharing with vampire bats. (The film’s most egregious missed opportunity is the white lab rat that ends up being cured by the bat serum. I’m sorry to report, we do not get to see what a vampire-rat looks like).

But you do get the sense that Swedish director Daniel Espinosa really wanted to make a horror film instead of the usual super-hero origin-story-punctuated-by-carnage. Owing to the illegal and unethical aspects of his work, Dr. Morbius and his colleague/love-interest Dr. Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona) carry out their human test on a cargo ship in international waters. If you know your Dracula, you know this is an homage and you can pretty much figure out how that little cruise ends.

In fact, for all the usual super-hero sturm und drang to which Morbius eventually succumbs, its best moments are claustrophobic. Example: a “hunt” in a dark hospital hallway that is certifiablly chilling, with lights off-and-on and the predator variously appearing from floor to ceiling to wall.

Mainly set in New York, Morbius’s protagonist is a good guy to the extent that he feels really bad about the body count and seeks to undo what he’s done (Tyrese Gibson and AAl Madrigal are likeable NYPD detectives who seem to take all the exsanguinated bodies in surprising stride). 

As for vampire lore, virtually none of it applies here. The transformation to blood sucker is more Hulk-like than Dracula (Morbius even tosses off a Bruce Banner-ish line when he is briefly in custody: “I’m getting hungry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m hungry.”) 

Even when not in vamp mode, both Leto and Smith (whose character wants in on the cure-my-disease action) have abs, pec and guns-for-arms they can’t help but want to show off. A lot of weight-training went into this movie.

CGI superpowers? They got ‘em. Bullet-time with red confetti tracers, echolocation powers that spread like a shockwave, flight, the ability to command bat armies…

And of course, these powers are in play in the last act, which in the Sony/Marvel version of a three-act narrative is where the big, noisy battle royal takes place, with property damage to match.

I suppose a vampire movie built on mood was never in the cards. As hinted in the inevitable mid-credits scene, Morbius has a future in the Spider-Man Universe, and will be interacting with other characters. And in this universe, even vampires have to go big or go home.

Morbius. Directed by Daniel Espinosa. Starring Jared Leto, Matt Smith and Adria Arjona. Opens in theatres Friday, April 1.