Superhero blockbusters have been ruling over theaters and the box office for the last decade. As Marvel’s cinematic universe keeps growing and dominating the market, other studios keep trying and failing to make their own. Sony holds the rights to Spider-Man and his super villain antagonists, so their only choice is to make a universe consisting only of his villains. Their newest film follows Marvel’s resident vampire played by Jared Leto in the character’s live-action debut.

“Morbius” is an origin story for Dr. Michael Morbius, aka “The Living Vampire.” After dedicating his life to finding a cure for his mysterious blood disease, Michael finds a breakthrough when splicing human DNA with a blood-sucking bat. After taking the first human test himself, Michael is cured.

However, he soon finds out the success came with a side effect. He now has to feed on human blood to stay alive. When artificial blood stops working for his appetite and an outside threat starts creating chaos, Morbius has to deal with the consequences of his life’s work.

“Morbius” is boring. Nothing interesting happens in this film’s 104-minute runtime. It ultimately only exists to set up the next bad film in Sony’s villain universe. There are no thought provoking ideas or captivating set pieces. It’s a mindless popcorn movie that will easily slip from the mind of every audience member the moment they leave the theater. It doesn’t even give us the pleasure of being so bad it’s funny. It’s just lifeless.

The action is terribly shot. The film has so much darkness and ugly special effects every action scene looks like a muddled mess. It’s difficult to focus on anything on screen, and at a certain point, it becomes easier to let your eyes just glaze over and not follow the action. In non-action scenes, there is nothing special about the cinematography. Everything is static, and it becomes an eyesore by the end. 

Every performance leaves much to be desired. Jared Leto is barely trying here, giving off little to no emotion in every scene. Matt Smith puts in more effort than Leto, but it results in some horrid character acting that doesn’t fit into the tone of the film. Every other character has no screen presence, and they don’t do the film any favors.

The biggest issue with this film is the complete lack of characterization. Morbius is a doctor who now feasts on blood, yet the filmmakers want him to be a hero so desperately. Anyone that Morbius does kill is either a scumbag or an overall bad person that deserves death. It robs this character of some true inner conflict that could be dealt with in a more interesting way.

Morbius was one of Spider-Man’s many villains in the comics. In a world without Spider-Man, Morbius is just a living vampire with no one to fight. This film introduces another vampire who kills innocent people for Morbius to beat up, so the filmmakers can try to pretend Morbius is actually a hero who doesn’t do anything wrong. 

By the end of the film, Morbius’ inner conflict about whether he should die or keep living by drinking human blood is dropped for a huge vampire fight.

This movie doesn’t have an ending. There is a climax, but the title card pops up before any resolution or satisfactory character development can occur. Morbius doesn’t decide whether he should still be a vampire or not. Many loose threads are not tied up in case material is needed for a sequel. 

One of the worst aspects of any modern superhero film is the need to bring up unresolved storylines that will come up later. No movie feels whole or complete anymore because each one has to tie into another.

This film is just another stepping stone to creating the eventual villain team-up film that Sony has planned. The problem is every villain they have gathered so far is not a bad guy. They might be a little rough in their methods, but they fight crime and evil people. Morbius is not a villain, so why does this movie or universe of films even exist?

“Morbius” is a dreadful experience that never lets up in its mediocrity. It is a film that is so empty and lacking in personality. It is not entertaining in the slightest, which makes it even worse than a laughably bad film. It has nothing to say and only highlights everything bad about the abundance of superhero movies that stay in theaters for multiple months. All the while, smaller films never even get the chance to be shown at a theater. 

“Morbius” is not worth anyone’s time, and it deserves to be placed in the dollar bargain bin for the rest of eternity. This lackluster experience receives a two out of ten.

Most superhero films are starting to break away from formulas and stagnant forms of filmmaking, but “Morbius” took two steps in the wrong direction. It functions as an unfun commercial trying to get you to watch more feature length commercials. Avoid this at all costs.