Morbius: A Marvel Flop

On April 1st, 2022, Morbius, a Marvel movie, was released. For those who don’t follow the Marvel universe, Morbius is known as one of Spider-man’s nemesis.  The movie stars Jared Leto as Michael Morbius, a doctor who creates artificial blood made to substitute natural blood cells. This fake blood creates oxygen and can cure almost anything. However, he struggles with a rare disease and has been trying to find a cure for it his whole life.

Many were excited to see Morbius, however, it left Marvel fans disappointed. In fact, the movie received  16% on Rotten Tomatoes, 5.2/10 on IMDb, and according to Common Sense Media, a ⅖ rating.

Rather than letting these bad reviews discourage me from watching the movie, I wanted to see for myself whether Morbius really was that bad.

While I tried to watch this movie with an open mind, it didn’t take me long to see why people panned this movie. The main issue of the movie is the direction of the plot. The beginning of the movie starts in a hospital with Morbius and his best friend, Milo. Milo´s life is affected heavily by the same rare disease that Morbius has and often feels like an outcast. In my opinion, the beginning of Morbius showed a lot of potential; how Milo´s life was portrayed made sense as to how he could develop bad motives to hurt others. I was interested in where the plot was going to go next; unfortunately, the movie went downhill from here.

With its plot issues, there are moments in the movie where the pacing is faster than it should be. It felt rushed or that major plot elements had been edited out, making scenes feels random, unconnected and thrown together. For example, parts that were taken from other Marvel movies and thrown into one.

Another issue in the movie was its character development. As we met the characters throughout the story, it felt as if there was no story to tell and no connections or feelings towards the characters. For example, Milo who becomes the movie’s main villain, doesn’t seem to have strong enough motives to support the character as a whole. There wasn’t character development adding to the motive, making it feel very incomplete. The motive felt weak in the story and unbalanced.

Another example is Morbius’ love interest, Dr. Martine Bancroft played by Adria Arjona. While she is supposed to have helped Morbius find a cure for his disease by testing out new ideas it feels as if she adds little value to the plot. She also has no backstory. Other seemingly important figures from the story disappear and are not mentioned in Morbius again such as a kid that has almost been cured because of Morbius who is featured in the first thirty minutes but then never seen again.

Lastly, the special effects in Morbius didn’t set the right tone for the movie. For instance, the slow-motion effects didn’t make the film exciting but instead seemed overused. The movie was creative, but the ideas were scattered in different directions. There should´ve been ideas that were removed from the movie ultimately to reduce confusion. 

In short, I feel that Morbius lacked plot and direction, and it felt incomplete, rushed, and confusing. If Morbius has a sequel, I hope it takes a better direction.

While I don’t recommend watching this movie, if you’re someone who likes to watch bad movies, this might be perfect for you.

If you like watching good movies, though, in particular Marvel movies, I suggest checking out Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Avengers: Infinity War.