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Morbius. (15.)
 

Directed by Daniel Espinosa




Starring Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Al Madrigal, Tyrese Gibson, Jared Harris and Michael Keaton. 104 mins. In cinemas.



Morbeii, there's a lot of them about. A character in Forbidden Planet, a villain in Doctor Who, (different spelling) a French artist, other assorted scientists and villains. It's a fun name, you enjoy the feel of it on your tongue: Moibeyus, with heavy stress in the oi. This incarnation, something in the expanding Sony/Marvel Spiderverse, is a living vampire, doncha know. The unprecedented, cinema reviving, Covid-be-damned, success of Spider-man: No Way Home must have put Sony on a euphoric high, a buzz that Morbius is going to comprehensively kill; this spin-off is a total non-event. It's so stubbornly unoriginal, uneventful and unimaginative you might almost believe it was made out of spite.


(The running time is a bit of a giveaway – these days any comic book movie that doesn't get to somewhere close to two and a half hours is probably a stinker.)


Michael Morbius (Leto) is the genius, maverick scientist who is desperately searching for a cure to the rare blood condition that has left him unable to walk without sticks and needing blood transfusion several times a day. Funding his research is a maverick rich guy and surrogate brother Milo (Smith) who suffers from the same condition. Morbius' solution is a serum taken from vampire bat's blood. This gives him superhuman abilities but with a craving for blood and something of a temper.


Vampires are just about the most overworked genre still being employed by the cinema, but Morbius doesn't stop there: it lines up plenty more dead horses for a good flogging. He's The Fly's Seth Brundle recklessly using himself as a guinea pig for his experiment. He’s the Hulk, trying to control the destructive powers he's given himself. There's even a bit of Matrix-style bullet-time imagery crammed in there.


With no new ideas to offer, the material needs to be delivered with a bit of flash and pazazz but the action sequences, set design and special effects all seem to belong to a distant past when comic book movies would usually be dashed off quickly and on the cheap.


Of course, all these criticisms were levelled at the previous Spider spin-off, Venom, and that went on to be a surprise hit. That though had Tom Hardy doing a humorous Jekyll and Hyde turn in the main role. This has a perfectly fine, rather dignified performance by Leto in the title role which would be perfect in a good movie, but can’t lift a drab one. This is tough on Leto, who deserves a break after the reception to his performance as the Joker.


Another performer deserving a break is Matt Smith. Since leaving Doctor Who, his choice of big-screen projects has been unerring bad. He's been in the execrable Terminator Genysis, Ryan Gosling’s derided directorial debut Lost River and then wasn't in the last Star Wars film. (Perhaps a lucky break.) He is playing the villain here and, though I may be biased, I think he's the best thing in it, the only element adding a bit of fun and energy to proceedings. His delivery of Milo’s last line is beautifully judged and very touching.

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