MORBIUS

Jared Leto as Michael Morbius

MORBIUS (2022). Director: Daniel Espinosa.  

Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) was born with a rare blood disease for which he is trying to find a cure. This cure involves vampire bats, and it turns out to be worse than the disease. Morbius turns into a vampire who has to subsist on artificial blood, which he created. But he knows that this fake blood won't sustain him for long. Another problem is that his friend, Milo (Matt Smith), who suffers from the same disease, takes the cure and doesn't care at all that he has to kill human beings to sustain him. Before long the two are in an epic battle in and above New York City. 

Morbius contemplates his future

Morbius was originally a character in Spider-Man comic books (Spidey is not mentioned until a post-credit sequence in which Michael Keaton as the Vulture also appears). Morbius also had his own short-lived series but he worked best as an opponent for Webhead. In the comics Morbius did prey upon innocent people and was always hating himself for it, but he never did the compassionate thing and end his life. This aspect of the character is not explored in this film in which he is basically a good guy (it's uncertain if he was responsible for the deaths of some mercenaries or not). 

Leto as Morbius

The action scenes in the movie, heavily dependent on CGI like most of these pictures, are at times too cluttered to be effective -- the business with alternating slow-motion with freeze frames is also annoying --  but the movie benefits greatly from a fine performance by Leto, with Matt Smith also effective as the rather psychotic Milo. I guess the best thing I could say about the modestly entertaining picture is that if there is a sequel I would watch it, but I couldn't necessarily recommend this to others. 

Verdict: A strong lead performance helps bolster this Marvel movie from Columbia studios. **1/2.