‘Morbius’ dead on arrival

After years of reschedules, reshoots, and rewrites, Morbius is finally in cinemas. Highly anticipated isn’t quite the phrase to describe it, but there’s a certain relief with the film’s cinema debut. Anticipating audiences have been theorising extensively about the movie, but no more mystery or suspense need be had. Audiences around the world can finally know the answer to the question: Just how bad is it?

The answer is, pretty bad. So bad that it represents everything wrong with how blockbusters are made. At the core of it is Dr Michael Morbius, a brilliant scientist with a lifelong ailment requiring three blood transfusions per day to survive. He has devoted his life to finding a cure not just for himself, but for all those who suffer from the disease, like his childhood best friend Milo.

After the brilliant Dr Morbius injects himself with a serum derived from combining bat and human DNA, he starts to undergo a change. He tosses aside his crutches, and finds himself imbued with a strength he’s never known. The only side effect is his insatiable thirst for blood.

The most surprising thing about Morbius is its strong foundation. The bond between brothers is beguiling, and the protagonist’s pursuit is powerful. The first 30 minutes of the movie are not just serviceable, they border on being decent. From then on, the movie quickly falls apart.

The film plays well with its horror elements. Morbius evokes the mad scientist body horror film The Fly, but with a bloodless and goreless PG-13 rating. As the plot develops the film adopts a more or less crippling approach, giving you less of what you want, and more of what you don’t. There’s an excessive amount of exposition with far too much being told rather than shown.

One scene shows Morbius leaping from a freighter ship in the middle of the ocean. The next you see him, he’s in a hoodie walking around like he’s come from the gym. How did he get to land? How long did it take to get there? Morbius abstains from any kind of details that would otherwise enrich its story and characters.

Large sections of the film feel shoddily edited out. Everything that would lend to the development of the characters and the plot is missing, leaving you with the bare bones of an action film that asks you to take its word as sacred, and fill in the blanks yourself. By the end of it, the film is only as good as your imagination allows, and on its own it is best described as a ‘B’ horror film for children looking for something scarier than a cartoon halloween special.

Rating: Read A Book

Damian Levy is a film critic and podcaster for Damian Michael Movies.