MORBIUS (2022)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*                                                                                                                          Maybe I would have hated MORBIUS as much as many "morbin' meme-sters" did had I seen the movie in a theater, where I had to pay for it. It is, I must admit, a pretty ordinary take on the Marvel character, who was never much more than your average "Doctor Jekyll and Mister Vamp" type of figure, full of existential agony every time he exsanguinated a hapless victim. But having seen the film for free, I can think of a lot of movies that deserve a lot more antipathy.                                                                                                     

The year before Sony Pictures released MORBIUS in April 2022, they'd had success both in collaborating with Marvel Films on two profitable SPIDER-MAN films, and had also done reasonably well with its October 2021 sequel to the new franchise Sony had built around former Spider-Man villain Venom. There was no good reason to think the company couldn't build a solid franchise around Michael Morbius, a scientist who accidentally infected himself with "scientific vampirism." All the producers had to do was repeat the Venom formula: eliding the movie-version's connections to the comic-book source-material-- Morbius's costume and his relationship to Spider-Man. It's possible, though, that MORBIUS got hurt by some of the public's disenchantment with superheroes when the MCU launched "Phase Four" in 2021. In contrast to 2019, which finished up with AVENGERS ENDGAME and the second Sony-MCU collab on Spider-Man, post-pandemic MCU released four 2021's films prior to MORBIUS's April release. These were BLACK WIDOW, SHANG-CHI, ETERNALS, and the third Sony-MCU SPIDER-MAN movie. The SPIDER-MAN film was the only major box-office success, while the "mainstream" MCU movies at best made some money beyond their principal budgets, but didn't prove all that exciting to the public. I think it probable that MORBIUS got caught up in the public's disappointment with uninspired flicks like SHANG-CHI in particular-- though even SHANG-CHI and MORBIUS look good next to a couple of the eyesores of the last half of 2022.                                                                                                    

So, back to MORBIUS's plot, which, as I specified, is pretty ordinary, but in an inoffensive way. Since childhood Michael Morbius suffers from a genetic blood disorder that forces him to walk with crutches, and while at a rehab center he meets another kid similarly afflicted, Lucien, whom for unknown reasons Michael nicknames "Milo." Michael saves Milo from a crisis, and the two bond into adulthood, where they're respectively played by Jared Leto and Matt Smith. Milo's character remains sketchy, though he's apparently both rich and crooked in some mysterious way. Michael, however, distinguishes himself with his innovative research into the disease from which he and Milo suffer-- the broad implication being that friendship with Milo has caused Michael to become altruistic, wanting to cure Milo as much as himself. Michael's research is funded by Milo and aided by fellow doctor Martine (Adria Arjona), who inevitably serves as Michael's romantic interest. Michael decides that a cure for the disease can be found by combining human DNA with that of vampire bats, and naturally the desperate scientist tests his formula on himself. Like dozens upon dozens of scientific overreachers, Michael becomes a monster: a vampiric powerhouse, but only as the result of feeding on human blood. But though Michael does contend with law-enforcement agents investigating his transgressions, his major foe turns out to be his best friend, who wants to possess the power of a vampire, no matter who gets hurt.                       

It's a shame the writers didn't provide Michael and Milo with more than these very schematic characterizations, because Leto and Smith are very talented performers and could have handled much more complex emotions, and Leto in particular looks good in vamp-face. There are some big action-scenes that emphasize some "morphing" effects akin to those in the VENOM franchise. While the fight-scenes aren't as bad as the ones in those late-2021 releases I mentioned-- i.e., the second BLACK PANTHER and the fourth THOR-- I imagine the familiar look of the action didn't do MORBIUS any favors. A mid-credits sequence tosses in another villain from the SPIDER-MAN movie universe, Michael Keaton's "Vulture," but whatever future plot-action this would have set up was doomed by the film's perceived failure. Again, I'm not saying that MORBIUS was anything special. But it also didn't deserve the "special" level of animosity it inspired.