Ahead of its theatrical release, Jared Leto's Dr. Michael Morbius as he gains vampiric powers after he attempts to cure his blood disease. ing Jared Leto as the titular character are Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Al Madrigal, and Tyrese Gibson. However, despite the promising cast, Morbius is still plagued with bad critic reviews and has become a source of mockery among meme-makers worldwide.
At the time of writing, the Morbius ratings on Morbius, which already missed its perfect release date, moves at a rushed pace while compromising its timeline, characterization, and logic.
Morbius - The Negative Reviews
The largely terrible Morbius ratings are due to its scenes being seemingly incomplete, poorly edited, and, at times, incomprehensible. Unlike its predecessors, Morbius relies too much on their shared Spider-Man universe rather than fleshing out its own. Here are some of the negative reviews:
"Despite a fine performance from Jared Leto, Morbius is a painfully mediocre superhero origin story, delivering a shallow recreation of better movies."
Time:
"But if Morbius doesn’t drag, it doesn’t exactly whiz by, either. Espinosa may have been trying to distinguish his film from the dozens—are we into the hundreds yet?—of other movies spawned from the comic books of various universes, and his efforts do give Morbius a vaguely noble air. This is a movie that feels like one big windup for something else, even if we walk out feeling we’ve already seen plenty."
IGN:
"Morbius is a gloomy, black-on-black-on-black tapestry in so many sequences that monochromatically lose visual interest. Morbius flies past New York City skyscrapers like Spider-Man discovering his web-slinging for the first time, but there’s nothing aerially spectacular."
"After a promising start, Daniel Espinosa’s long-delayed film only intermittently matches the intensity of the lead performance, and the script by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless becomes thin on story, choppily stringing together chaotic outbursts and action clashes that build to a painstakingly foreshadowed “sibling” face-off."
Mostly, the film occupies a strange no-mans-land of the sprawling Spider-Verse, not charming like the “Spider-Man” films, not funny like the “Venom” films, and certainly not technically impressive like the animated “Into the Spider-Verse.”
"Morbius lacks all charm and devotion to its main character, hoping that lengthy action sequences and jarring images of Leto and Smith’s animated faces will make us forget about how poor the script is."
Morbius - The Positive Reviews
On the other hand, Morbius’ blend of horror and superhero genres has earned praise. The consistently spooky and dark vibes from the film are effective enough in building the characters and their motivations. The familiar Spider-Man franchise is then elevated with the introduction of new characters, ensuring sequels in the future. Moreover, Matt Smith (House of the Dragon's Daemon Targaryen) offers a compelling, nuanced performance. Matt's acting occasionally overshadows that of Jared Leto. Here are more of the positive Morbius ratings and reviews:
"The curious fun of Daniel Espinosa’s film is in how it embraces the gothic mythology that inspired it. Morbius does eventually become a cluttered slugfest, as all things must. But for much of its run it is a stylish, intriguingly toned story of a man trying to thwart mortality."
"Swedish-Chilean director Daniel Espinosa (Life) gives it all a dark sheen, and shoots the pair's inevitable confrontations less like traditional comic-book clashes than something from The Matrix. The air around them moves like liquid ribbons, and even in peak CGI, their fights looks like something between jet propulsion and underwater ballet."
"At its best, “Morbius” keeps the audience riveted, wondering what will happen next. In the end, it ends up where all Marvel movies end up, on a roof, and looking like a blown-up computer screen. But the obligatory fireworks don’t go on long enough to spoil anything. Against all odds, “Morbius” is an intelligent, human story."
"A monster movie with a little bite, Morbius is elevated by some spirited performances and director Daniel Espinosa’s sure hand with familiar comic-book material."
After the massive box-office success of Spider-Man: Homecoming’s villain Vulture appears in Morbius. However, studios will be hard-pressed to continue a franchise attempt that was largely lambasted on all fronts. Nevertheless, a Rotten rating was also awarded to both Venom movies, yet audiences appeared to enjoy them. In fact, while Morbius ratings on the Tomatometer settled on 15%, more than 5,000 audience gave the movie a 71% score. There might be hope for the character and franchise yet.
It's Morbin' Time: How Memes Saved Morbius From Total Irrelevance
Morbius may have been a critical flop, but its negative reception also practically canonized the movie as a long-running meme with high remix potential. Ironically, Jared Leto's return as Morbius may be fueled not just by his future role in the VenomVerse, but also by the sheer number of memes that all point to the movie being unwatchable. From classic insights like Morbius curing their insomnia to fake news-inspired memes claiming the movie raked in 200 Morbius Dollars at the box office, there's no question that Morbius spurred audiences into action. In 2022, the internet has made Morbius' failure impossible to forget, especially with catchphrases like "It's Morbin' Time" and "Get Morbed" forever burned into people's brains.
In fact, the Morbius memes have even led to the movie being re-screened despite the poor reviews. While most people who flocked to cinemas only took selfies and didn't actually buy tickets, the press only contributed to the movie's notoriety and further ensured that the Marvel character's name remains in circulation. Similar to the Sharknado franchise, Morbius is so bad, it's a must-see movie, and it remains to be seen when the internet will stop having fun making and referencing Morbius memes.
