The attempt to mend the severed disconnects between the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the select characters possessed by Sony Pictures' rights only results in a deeper divide following the long-delayed Morbius. The film follows famed blood disease Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) as he continues to engineer life-saving blood alternatives. His work goes awry, and consequentially, Morbius becomes a superhuman with vampiric abilities.
There are plenty of opportunities for Morbius to elevate the originality of its comic book inspiration and defeat the constant formula that has become synonymous with Marvel-branded works across film and television. The creative team ultimately avoids any means of taking creative liberty while crafting a significantly anti-climactic addition to the cinematic canon of Marvel Studios. The rushed, lackluster backstory vaguely contributes to why Morbius's attempt to keep lifelong friend Milo (Matt Smith) under control fizzles out as forgettable as the film treks on. Seldom is there a moment where character interactions seem performed with the intention to have any meaningful purpose behind them. The dialogue is stiff, stale, and robotic as the tone tries all too hard to come across as grey and brooding. The self-assurance that Morbius could have once been a horror movie is abandoned as genre tropes are overlooked. There is an evident shortcoming of the structure that distracts away from what the film's true intentions are.
Morbius excuses substance for questionable action and miserably-edited CGI. The film becomes confused by itself and fails to gain the ability to redirect itself after becoming unforgivingly derailed. No amount of special effects has the power to scrape up saving grace from the scraps of the film. A distinct lack of atmosphere strips away the film's ability to not only earn attention but to keep it captive. There is no striking nor impressionable resonance that is attached to Morbius that makes it truly forgettable. The exclusion of any energy allows the film to exhaust itself before it can fully collapse beneath the weight of poor craftsmanship. The total self-resignment of even attempting to stay engaged with what it could offer is sacrificed to dull storytelling surrounding even more uninspired characters.
It comes as a shock that despite the amount of time given for Morbius to rework itself and free itself of its flaws, the quality still struggles to completely manifest. Even its post-credit scenes have yet to make sense of themselves as they contribute to the confusion around the Spider-Man anti-hero. Sony Pictures has proved one thing: Morbius succeeds as a vampire film as it drains life from itself.