Marvel Studios' latest offering of Morbius is the moment it truly became the cookie-cutter conveyor belt of superhero franchises it has long been accused of.
It's not even that there were any obvious problems with it on the surface. Jared Leto, though in my opinion the worst performer of the Joker character, is still talented and capable in the right role, and Matt Smith of Dr Who fame and acclaim, has all the charisma and traits to make a quality villain.
The opening sections of the film show some promise, too. The character is Morbius is immediately shown in a sympathetic light and his situation is made unique enough, compared to characters like Batman or Venom that might considered a bit too similar at first glance.
Things start to fall apart after Morbius acquires his powers. As a viewer, questions began popping in to my mind at that point to which I, and I suspect, most audiences, never found an answer. What exactly are his powers? What's he going to do with them? Is he in a separate universe to the other Marvel characters or not? What are the immediate implications? Why is he not trying to do more good or evil for that matter, with his powers?
I think the scriptwriters struggled with these question, too. As a result Morbius begins to stall and spend time pondering exactly what is going on with himself, and the film suffers for it. The emergence of the villain was correctly predicted by my better half almost to the exact minute of the film and from then on, everything was entirely predictable and uninspiring. Adding to the disappointment and convolution was the role of Morbius' friend and sidekick, a female doctor whose name I forget.
Though she was clearly cast as his love interest and someone to be rescued from the clutches of the villain, Marvel are, of course, desperate to avoid criticisms for politically incorrect stereotypes. Therefore, she had to be written and seen as courageous, smarter than Morbius himself and of importance and attraction but not a romantic partner, and in need of rescuing from the villain though not intimidated or distressed by him. The result is as messy and confused as it sounds.
Even the ending is sloppy. The credits threaten to roll, the logo appears, but then, we get the traditional Easter egg, before the credits roll. It's as if Marvel Studios wanted to acknowledge that it probably wasn't worth waiting for. I won't spoil it just in case anyone decides to watch this for themselves but even the Easter egg felt like it was tagged on, riding the coattails of far better movies and characters to encourage viewers to return for a sequel that clearly wasn't warranted on its own merits.
In summary, in case you hadn't guessed, Morbius, though it just about avoids being truly awful, is not worth the time or the ticket price in my opinion.
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Topic: Morbius - lazy, unispired and confusing (Read 2028 times)
