Morbius is the latest Marvel superhero (or anithero) movie. It follows a doctor who has had a fatal disease for as long as he can remember. In an attempt to cure it, he mixes his DNA with that of a bat. This gives him superhuman abilities but comes with the urge to drink human blood.

My biggest question going into Morbius was which of the many Marvel universes was the film set in and how would it tie into other recent Marvel instalments. It had been hinted at in the trailers that the movie would tie into the events that happen in the incredible film Spider-Man: No Way Home. Much to my disappointment, the only reference to this movie was in the two mid-credits scenes which confused an already confusing concept in No Way Home even further and hinted at future movies involving Dr Michael Morbius (which as you are about to find out isn't a good thing). I should have come to realise with these Marvel movies that usually the only connection to the 'bigger picture' is in the mid- and post-credits scenes which always make you want to come back for more.

But apart from the disappointment of no Spider-Man, how was the rest of the movie? Not great. In fact, I'd even say pretty terrible. No, get rid of the pretty: it was terrible.

Morbius shared a lot of similarities with the 2018 film Venom which I quite enjoyed. However, unlike Venom, Morbius had a real lack of likeable characters. The acting in Morbius was quite poor and it seemed like all the lead actors were trying too hard to make good characters which therefore led to an absence of any characters to cheer on. Venom was also funny. Morbius was not. Usually, Marvel movies succeed in making the audience laugh out loud but I can only remember genuinely laughing at one point in the movie (and I honestly can't remember what it was at so it mustn't have been that memorable).

So if Morbius wasn't a comedy, was it a horror movie? The last time I checked, horror movies are supposed to make you scared to go to bed at night and Morbius does not put this fear into the audience (maybe except for ten-year-olds). Once again, the movie was trying too hard to be scary, however, it felt like it needed to be scary. So instead of being scary, the movie was unnecessarily disgustingly gory (not that the audience got to see very much blood and guts; it was just inferred which can sometimes be worse).

A highlight for me from Marvel movies, if not the humour, is usually the action and visual effects which seriously fell short in Morbius. There were some strange directorial decisions made such as the use of a shaky camera and slow-motion. The shaky camera (along with the poor visual effects) made it harder to follow the action and the slow-motion (as well as the cheesy catchphrases) made it feel like we were watching Ben 10. It always felt like we were building toward some big incredible action sequence but then this was cut short before it even started. This was a similar situation to the 'horror' aspect of the movie as I can recall multiple situations where I felt like I should have been more scared than I was. The special effects were also terribly unrealistic and unbelievable. My idea of special effects and CGI is that you shouldn't be able to notice it; exactly the opposite of what Morbius does.

Well, what about the story? Surely it can save this movie from total humiliation. It maybe could if an extremely similar movie hadn't been released four years earlier, not to mention that that the same idea has been used in multiple Marvel movies. As I said earlier, Venom has an almost identical storyline to Morbius, only that Morbius is much worse. Not only is the story similar but it is predictable and confusing at the same time. It feels rushed but as I'm thinking this, I'm also wanting the movie to be over. It was easy to see so many things coming with Morbius, but then again, something would happen that wouldn't be explained properly and would leave the audience scratching their heads. The characters weren't introduced properly and there were so many things that happened too quickly without any buildup. But don't get me wrong, an hour and three quarters is more than long enough for this movie.

And the worst part about this movie is it only gets worse and worse as the movie drags on.

Morbius has been considered by many to be the worst Marvel movie to date. And even though I haven't seen every Marvel movie, I'm going to agree with them. Everything that Marvel seems to do so well is done badly in this movie, such as the CGI, the special effects, the likeable characters, the action, the acting, the humour. And then even the things that Marvel often gets wrong, such as the confusing storyline and the multiple plotholes, are exaggerated in this movie. If you think that the movie doesn't look bad from the trailers (in fact after rewatching one of the trailers, the movie looks so much better in those than what we actually got), then you are going to be very disappointed.

The music wasn't bad.

Director: Daniel Espinosa

Starring: Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona

Year released: 2022

My rating: 3/10

Review by Tristan Carr

Last edited: 24/07/2022