Morbius

You can smash the box office like Venom did in 2018 and make reliably entertaining Spider-Man films but Sony's partial breakaway with their own licenced characters in the Marvel universe is best described as uneven. The Tom Holland series has been a huge hit and I've enjoyed all three films but with the first Venom being average and then that forgettable sequel falling well below average, would Sony's next entry, Morbius, tip the scale in their favour or would the absence of the web slinging icon spell disaster? 

Adapted from comics and a character I never knew existed, the story follows a gifted scientist, Dr. Michael Morbius, seeking a cure to his illness that could prematurely end his life, as well as many other friends and patients who carry the same symptoms. Fortunately for him, he finds a cure deep in the jungles of South America using bats, which raised an eyebrow here but this was all filmed before the pandemic. However, the cure comes with dangerous side-effects that see him yearn for blood and now he must protect his discovery from falling into the wrong hands while not harming anyone by his own hands... or teeth. 

Despite my criticisms, the first Venom film was still easy to enjoy thanks to Tom Hardy's performance and he did his best in a poorly handled sequel that felt as if it was designed by a computer algorithm due to how stale it felt. The latter seems to had also suffered from going for a softer age rating in the editing room and, while Morbius doesn't hold too far back from the violence, making this intriguing premise into a cookie-cutter superhero template puts this film firmly in the forgettable section of Marvel universe. 

Everything from how it's shot with the flat visuals, the average special effects and bland origin story while combined with Jared Leto's so-so performance kills any sense of excitement. Morbius just feels like you've been here before countless times and Daniel Espinosa's direction doesn't bring anything new to the table as we go through the usual three acts before a big, dumb and very messy CGI throw down at the end. 

The only saving grace is the brilliant Matt Smith as the British baddy who does so much with so little and it's his scenes that give the film some sense of charisma in this otherwise lacklustre action flick, which needed stronger direction and better writing to inject some sense of originality. Morbius is a studio film through and through, designed purely to expand Sony's Marvel characters in the hope of building towards something grand but with so many misfires they need a James Gunn or someone to turn this ship around away from disaster.