Urvash Shende

Morbius is the worst Marvel superhero movie in a long, long time. Mostly inert, sometimes laughable," his tweet read. Other critics largely gave negative reviews as well. Kate Erbland, who reviews films for IndieWire, wrote that it “sucks more than just blood”. As I sat down to watch Marvel and Sony's new superhero offering Morbius on Friday morning, a group of teens behind me were discussing with each other if they needed to have seen other movies before this one. Fifteen years ago, this would have been an absurd question. But in the post-MCU world, it is a valid query. How does this superhero film connect to the dozens I may have missed? Well, Morbius does and doesn't. It tries to be a stand-alone venture, while including Easter eggs from the larger Sony-Marvel universe. The only problem is that it does all that quite horribly and in the most boring fashion imaginable. Quite simply put, Morbius is the worst offering from the Sony-Marvel slate of films. Given that Sony has previously given forgettable films like Fantastic 4 , that's a pretty low bar. In terms of how much it sucks, Morbius can compete with even the worst offerings from DC. The premise of Morbius is simple. The film deals with biochemist Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) infecting himself with a form of vampirism while trying to cure himself of a rare blood disease. Director Daniel Espinosa provides our hero with a strong support cast in the form of Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Tyrese Gibson, and Jared Harris. However, it all falls short because of shoddy writing. Morbius uses all the tropes that superhero films did in the 90s- a tortured hero, a friend-turned-foe villain, a good-looking scientist/doctor that is the protagonist's love interest, and the father figure played by a noted actor. The thing is, in 2008 Marvel Cinematic Universe began and replaced these tropes (Guardians of the Galaxy) or improved upon them (Thor). Even DC grew with time and gave us The Batman just four weeks ago. In the face of all that, Morbius feels terribly out of place and out of time. The film does not waste any time in establishing the characters or their motives. Wait, let me rephrase that. It does not bother doing it at all. The lynchpin of the narrative is the bond between Michael and his surrogate brother Milo (Matt Smith) and Michael's wish to save their lives yet, you never care about that bond. So when later it disintegrates, you really don't feel anything. The romance between Michael and his subordinate Dr Martine Bancroft (played by Adria) is forced. You are invested so little in the characters that a few die and you do not feel a thing. It makes the narrative pretty bland. There are references to Venom and Spider-Man peppered in the story. It makes sense since Morbius was associated with these characters in Marvel Comics. But it feels like a bad product placement here. Morbius even attempts to build a larger universe with its multiple post-credits sequences, where it introduces an MCU character. But given how Marvel has perfected the art of making crisp post-credit scenes, Morbius falls flat here too. The scenes feel like a forced effort to connect Morbius to a larger universe. It does not feel organic at all.