Rating: C+
Dir: Daniel Espinosa
Star: Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris
Oh goody! It’s time for another fecking comic-book film. This time from Marvel. Still, it comes with good opening cinematography and is cute and well paced. The cast is likeable and the plot completely ludicrous. Obviously. It’s a Marvel comic. Overall, it’s less doctor who? it’s more doctor what have you become?
For the good Doctor Morbius (Jared Leto) has invented artificial blood, which is helping to save lives everywhere. Proving what a good sort he is! The invention of fake blood is just as well as, in finding a treatment for his unnamed affliction (by the use of vampire bats), he must now also feed on blood. So. A good sort, if a bit complicated. And not at all a vampire. Well. Maybe a bit.
This is not an overly complex nor layered story. It’s a simple story told simply, with a very straightforward double-cross at its core.
The piece is well shot, well constructed, with some underplayed yet very effective visual effects helping to welcome us back to NY. A Marvel’ous NY.
“Get your Daily Bugle here!!”
Overall it’s cute and as formulaic as you’d like/fear/expect. Cute, snappy, happy… and any other dwarfs or Rice-Crispy’ites that you might care to mention… all apply. Yes, even ‘Pop’.
The plot (…I can hear Jim mumbling…)? Well, Morbius and his friend Milo (Matt Smith) lived together and bonded as children in a bleak sanatorium for the soon-to-be-dead. Spin forward many years and Milo is funding Morbius to find a cure to what ails them. As alluded to above, the cure comes with complications, and also great power. And with great power comes…. trope.
Morbius isn’t happy with the side effects, whereas Milo really doesn’t care and, if anything, is rather enjoying the superhuman powers that are imbued within the treatment.
The rest writes itself, even if the output is a little VFX heavy.
Overall – diverting and worth a watch – just don’t expect to need your brain nor even much of an attention span, coz bruv, it ain’t that kind-a movie. Think of it as candy-floss, seemingly appealing, fun to enjoy, just a bit ‘meh’ ultimately. So, bring beer and popcorn, and keep critical adults out of the room.