Marvel’s Morbius Review: Is It THAT Bad?

Here are my 2 cents about it

Alex Rosado
5 min readJun 21, 2022
Morbius movie poster with Jared Leto as Morbius in the middle and side characters around him
Morbius (2022) Marvel, Disney

So far, Morbius has been talked about a lot, but for the worst reasons. If you haven’t heard about it, Morbius was set to release in July 2020 but was released in April 2022 instead (due to Covid).

The reception was very negative and created a wave of memes online. It escalated, internet trolls created a fake narrative claiming that the movie was the most financially and critically successful of all time — #MorbiusSweep trended on Twitter after its release.

It led Sony to release the movie a second time, which performed very poorly.

Once the movie was over, so was the hate, and the internet forgot about Morbius.

My husband didn’t. As the movie was released on DVD and Blu-ray this week, and because we are the last people to buy them, we invested.

Who is Morbius?

Don’t worry, I didn’t know either. I never read any of Marvel’s comics, so I was a Morbius virgin.

Michael Morbius is a scientist with a blood disease. He is also a genius, that’s how Marvel likes them.

He spends his life looking for a cure for his disease, and obviously he finds it — in bats. Cue some unethical and illegal scientifical experiments. He takes the cure and becomes something else. Something new. A super creature that shares many resemblances with bats.

What’s the movie about?

That. What I just explained. Him looking for a cure, finding it, taking it, adapting, and fighting the villain that took the same cure (I’m staying away from spoilers so far).

There are also a couple of other characters, notably the usual cops investigating what’s happening.

So, is it bad?

I don’t think so. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the movie of the year, but I truly don’t believe it deserves the hate it got. It reminds me of the old anti-heroes movies I grew up with. It’s definitely closer to Jumper than it is to any recent Marvels.

And I think that’s the issue.

Many people are used to seeing these bigger-than-their-imagination movies with crazy effects, superstars in each scene, and at least one “funny” character with one-liners to act as a comic release.

Morbius is not that. There’s no funny. The fight scenes are not as big as what Marvel did in the past. The story is much smaller, focusing on a handful of characters.

It’s an alright stand-alone movie. And I honestly liked it better than Black Widow. Sure, the story feels a bit flat here and there, but not enough to generate so much hatred online.

People criticized the special effects. Even if I’m not an expert, I didn’t find anything wrong. I quite like the idea of blurring his environment when he uses his special abilities.

Spoilers from here on

I’ve loved Matt Smith since he was the doctor on Doctor Who, so I was very eager to watch once I realized he was in the movie. I think he did an alright job with what he was given.

I didn’t get his character. So many times, I ended up asking “why?” to my TV. Why, Seriously? I know he was sick his entire life, and the cure was everything he had dreamed of. But why go full evil so fast? Why be so okay with killing, yet not fighting in the bar? Why kill his father figure?

And why attack Morbius so often? He disagrees with you, doesn’t want to stay this way, just go your separate way! Seriously! The more you attack him and the people he cares about, the more likely he is to kill you. What did you expect?

He did a 180, going from almost brother to enemy, for absolutely no reason. It felt like something was missing, a bit of a stretch.

I also thought it was annoying to only be shown Morbius’ scientific successes but never the all-nighters he pulled, messing up and trying over and over.

Also, why introduce us to that little girl in the hospital and never let us know what happens to her? Or did I miss it..?

Finally, why would Martine want to become like Morbius? She said “make it worth it”, and it was a good way to die. Don’t say stuff like that if you plan on coming back.

Conclusion

It’s a flawed movie — there’s no denying it. The plot could have been better, and I can’t figure out why the credits were pink and light blue. Where do these colors come from?

Some things are a bit ridiculous, that’s for sure, but it didn’t seem to bother anyone when it was the Avengers.

All I’m saying is don’t hate it if you haven’t watched it — and maybe don’t hate in general. You ruin it for others, and maybe prevent people that could have liked it to see it.

Should we get a second Morbius? Probably not. Not soon at least. Yet, I’m not going to lie, my husband talked about a fight against Dracula, and I’m intrigued… I don’t see how that little dude can measure up — that little dude being Morbius.

After research, it actually never happened, but now I want to see it. Marvel, if you’re reading me (I know, high hopes)…Dracula versus Morbius, let’s do it!

Hopefully, if they do make a second movie, they don’t link it to the other Marvels. It would be great to go back to when we had stand-alone movies. No need to link each previous hero and villain together. The Avengers was fun, but it became too much.

Have you seen the movie? What do you think?

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Alex Rosado

Oversharer. French. Occasional critic. A bit dramatic but still figuring things out