About the film (courtesy of Columbia Pictures):
Dangerously ill with a rare blood disorder and determined to save others suffering his same fate, Dr. Morbius (Jared Leto) attempts a desperate gamble. While at first it seems to be a radical success, a darkness inside him is unleashed. Will good override evil – or will Morbius succumb to his mysterious new urges?

Morbius lands far from home in its bid to become another strong staple in Sony Pictures Entertainment’s book of Marvel Studios success. While one single franchise swung for the fences and climbed above the rest as the gold standard in its cinema superiority, SPE assuredly has hopes to build on this solid foundation. Branching out by seeking more carnage in a slightly darker way, their next addition proved to be more than just a parasite as it latched on and killed it in the box office. This now brings us to the Jared Leto-led origin story of Michael Morbius…and it kinda sucks.

If you don’t recall, Morbius had an original theatrical release date of July 2020. But thanks to COVID, this title along with countless others were forced to wait until a better (aka more profitable) time to see the light of day. Unfortunately in this case, delays may have hurt the potential success of this particular film in several ways.

Morbius feels as if it has been overedited, if there is such a thing. The runtime is only, and yes I say only, listed at 108 minutes. While this is not short by any means, this story’s plotline feels like it’s missing a few pages. And it’s the hurriedness that makes the narrative feel choppy. Some situations called for deeper dives rather than cursory flybys. And while I’m not politicking for something as meaty as Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021), director Daniel Espinosa and his team could have given us a little more.

Jared Leto and Matt Smith played well with and against one another, as did Adria Arjona and Jared Harris. Although there could have been more done with Arjona’s character, Martine. Tyrese Gibson and Al Madrigal did not thrill me in their parts investigating crimes. They were just kind of there as an afterthought necessity, kind of like ensign “new guy” that beams down to a planet with Star Trek established characters with only one inevitable fate in store, yeah that person isn’t returning to the Enterprise, at least not alive.

Some of the action sequences of watching the speedy vampire-like characters evade, fight and kill were entertaining, while other times it was just like blurs of color, smoke and ghostlike figures doing God-knows-what and you’re just waiting (impatiently) for it to conclude. As I’ve eluded to all along here, Morbius is a swinging pendulum of unevenness.

This arc of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe definitely isn’t D.O.A., but is sort of underwhelming, especially given the extended time they had to get it right and/or tweak for changes based of the trends of what has been successful or failures over the previous 15 or so months during its time in pandemic purgatory. I wouldn’t totally change your day around to see Morbius right away, but I will say that it isn’t a totally disappointing time out in the theaters. We’ll just have to wait and see where Sony takes things from here.

For now though, you can see Morbius only in theaters and be sure to stay seated for the two mid-credit scenes, even if they don’t blow your socks off.