‘Morbius’ Film Review: Jared Leto’s a Vegan Vampire in Underwhelming Marvel Horror
thewrap.commuch of a movie, but it’s a movie nonetheless.Leto does indeed star as Michael Morbius, a world-renowned physician — talented enough to invent an artificial blood substitute, iconoclastic enough to turn down the Nobel Prize he won for the invention — who has grappled with blood-borne disease since childhood.
With the financial support of lifelong friend and fellow patient Milo (Matt Smith), Michael has become a leader in his field, even as he branches out into morally questionable territory, exploring the possibility of grafting vampire-bat DNA with human DNA.Like “The Wasp Woman” and countless other cinematic mad scientists who tampered in God’s domain, Michael tries the experiment on himself, discovering both a cure (he’s strong, buff and can hang from the ceiling) and a curse (he transforms into a fanged creature starved for human blood).
With the help of love interest and fellow doctor Martine (Adria Arjona, “6 Underground”), Michael uses the artificial blood to slake his thirst for the real thing, even though each use of the substitute keeps his literal demons at bay for less and less time.
When Milo injects himself with Michael’s experimental bat DNA and revels in his newfound power (and thirst), it’s up to Michael to stop both of them from feeding on the city.Screenwriters Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (“Gods of Egypt”), adapting Roy Thomas and Gil Kane’s original Marvel character, don’t seem particularly interested in the metaphor of mega-rich Milo seeing the rest of humanity as nothing more than fuel for his sustenance, but then they don’t seem much interested in anything beyond the usual world-building and sequel-crafting that plagues so many mediocre comic-book movies.Director Daniel Espinosa, previously.
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