Morbius (2022)

 

By: Jahanzaib Khokhar

Review| Like “The Batman,” “Morbius” is a classic American tale of personal trauma, existential agony, regenerative violence

What a set of razor-sharp teeth he has, and what wonderful skin he has as well. One of the secrets of "Morbius," the latest film to resurrect a minor Marvel character for his big screen debut, is that regular blood smoothies are good for the skin. The sculpted planes of Morbius' arms and torso suggest that hammering doses of the slurpy substance builds muscles considerably faster than anabolic steroids.

Still, the most surprising thing about "Morbius" is that it isn't bad, at least not as a film. Despite the insufferable persona that its star Jared Leto has cultivated, it delivers everything you could want from a diversion about a brilliant scientist with bottomless financial resources (as well as a hot but smart assistant) who, after turning down a Nobel Prize for his brilliant scientific invention, secretly develops a serum that transforms him into a bat like creature with razor nails, great powers, and a hunger for human blood. It's also under two hours long, which is a whole hour less than the previous slugfest "The Batman." What's not to enjoy, right?

It begins with some time travel in present-day Costa Rica, where the mature Morbius (Leto), a darkly romantic image with a curtain of jet-black hair, billowing garments, and hired firearms, swoops in on a helicopter. He gets a close experience with vampire bats there, as one does when swimming with dolphins becomes too mundane. He draws the first blood by slicing open his palm and is engulfed by a cloud of bats. Morbius is back in his New York lab, experimenting and knitting brows with a coworker, Monica, after a leisurely flashback to his miserable youth (Adria Arjona).

"Morbius" is a famous American tale of personal anguish, existential agony, and regenerating violence, similar to "The Batman." as well as bats Once again, the trauma occurs in childhood, this time involving the young Michael Morbius, who is being treated for a rare blood ailment in a Greek children's hospital. (What is the significance of Greece? I'm not sure.) There, he meets a kind doctor (Jared Harris) and befriends a boy named Milo who suffers from the same illness. Milo grows up to be a sleazy moneybags, played by Matt Smith, who is best known for his portrayal as Prince Philip in "The Crown," a bit of casting history that lends his character here a funny flavor.

The first half of the film is more well-crafted than the second, and there are a few plot holes here and there that imply some late-breaking editing busywork. Even so, on its own implausible terms, the entire thing makes sense as a neo-vampiric narrative of dread and yearning. The characters are also well-developed, not just sketches that will be fleshed out in subsequent franchise chapters. Despite the overall Goth gloom, this modulation extends to the graphics; here, lights are turned on and the sun even shines on occasion, if only to demonstrate that Morbius isn't your grandmother's Dracula.

The filmmakers — Daniel Espinosa directed from a plot and script by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless — make tributes to both Bram Stoker's novel and F.W. Murnau's silent picture "Nosferatu," with nods to both. Morbius, on the other hand, is a hybrid creature, recasting Dracula as a modern-day Dr. Frankenstein, although one who, like Peter Parker, is transformed by his meeting with another species. Everything grows increasingly difficult and violent once Morbius goes insane, and while bodies fall in droves and one character revels in the slaughter, the film doesn't exult in it.