Morbius

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Scientist and Nobel laureate Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) has been searching for a cure for his and best friend Milo’s rare blood disease for many years, and he is finally getting closer to a breakthrough by virtue of gene splicing between human and bat DNA. Treating himself as his own guinea pig, he undergoes the human trial himself with the help of girlfriend and fellow doctor Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona). The illegal procedure he undergoes on a cargo ship in international water east of New York works and he is temporarily cured but must face the side effect of bloodlust to maintain its effectiveness. Not wanting Milo to suffer the same fate of being a blood thirsty monster, he attempts to withhold the serum from him, but he finds a way to inject it to himself anyway. With no moral compass and a newly found freedom, Milo goes on a senseless killing spree that only Morbius himself can stop.

So, did the epilogue of No Way Home misplace Spider-Man villains all over the multiverse? Otherwise, Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) ending up here does not make a lot of sense. Sony is obviously gearing up for Sinister Six, what with Vulture, Morbius, and Venom being established as existing in this same universe and Kraven the Hunter coming soon with his own solo film. With Spider-Man being explicitly namedropped by Toomes to an intrigued Morbius as someone they could gang up on, it raises more questions: Will they bring Garfield back; snatch Holland from the MCU; or introduce Miles Morales?

Whatever their plan may be, Sony seems to be in full milking-the-MCU-cash-cow mode here, even if the connections are already coming across as too contrived for their own sake. Both Venom films were entertaining alright and managed to establish an entertaining anti-hero persona. The same template can be seen here. But even Venom 2 was already heading towards mediocre territory. Can Sony keep this up? Perhaps Feige need not worry as long as they isolate this Sony-verse and keep it far detached from the MCU, in its own bubble where shit can easily be contained if and when it hits the fan.

As for the storyline, it is your typical anti-hero origin story, borrowing heavily from the MCU’s own set of gimmicks. The problem here is now that the genre is fast reaching saturation point, making people care is no longer a question but rather a command. Why should we care about Morbius? No. MAKE US CARE about this new character. The thing is, there aren’t a lot of unique aspects that make vampire boy stand out from the rest. Plot development is predictable, and the main villain is a bit of a bore. In the end, Morbius tried, but tripped on all the superhero tropes the writers decided to fill his narrative with.

Another question is what happened to his girlfriend. One would think that she originally got fridged so Morbius can pursue his real potential, only for her to wake up later on with Morbius’ vampire eyes. Did he inject her with the last serum remaining or did he go all Twilight vampire on her? While the prospect of seeing Arjona kick ass along with Leto in a possible sequel seems promising, the mechanism of turning someone into a vampire is not so clear here. Perhaps some comic book fans would like to shed some light.