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SONY

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Daniel Espinosa
Cast:
Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona
Writing Credits:
Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless

Synopsis:
Biochemist Michael Morbius tries to cure himself of a rare blood disease, but he inadvertently infects himself with a form of vampirism instead.

Box Office:
Budget
$75 million.
Opening Weekend
$39,005,895 on 4268 Screens.
Domestic Gross
$73,846,124.

MPAA:
Rated PG-13.

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Audio:
English DTS-HD MA 5.1
English Audio Descriptive Service
French DTS-HD MA 5.1
French Audio Descriptive Service
Portuguese DTS-HD MA 5.1
Portuguese Audio Descriptive Service
Spanish Dolby 5.1
Thai Dolby 5.1
Subtitles:
English
French
Spanish
Cantonese
Chinese Simplified
Chinese Traditional
Korean
Portuguese
Thai
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
English
Spanish
Thai
Portuguese
Korean
Chinese Simplified
Chinese Traditional

Runtime:
104 min.
Price: $38.99
Release Date: 6/14/2022

Bonus:
• Outtakes & Bloopers
• “Lights, Camera, Action” Featurette
• “Defining the Anti-Hero” Featurette
• “Doing the Stunt Work” Featurette
• “The Good, Bad & Ugly” Featurette
• “Nocturnal Easter Eggs” Featurette
• “From Human to Vampire” Featurette
• Theatrical Marketing Materials
• Previews
• DVD Copy


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RELATED REVIEWS


Morbius [Blu-Ray] (2022)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (June 20, 2022)

When Iron Man launched the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” (MCU) in 2008, it attempted to tie together that publisher’s characters. However, because Marvel sold the rights to these properties to a mix of parties, some didn’t fall under the MCU umbrella.

This meant Spider-Man, arguably Marvel’s biggest character of all-time, stayed separate from the MCU. Sony owned the rights and pursued their own movies via 2002’s Spider-Man, its sequels and 2012 reboot.

With 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, Spidey – now played by Tom Holland, the third actor in the series – finally came home to join the MCU. However, Sony maintained the rights to the character, so the Spidey trilogy that began with 2017’s Homecoming stayed with them, even though it involved the MCU.

Not only does Sony possess the option for Spidey, but also they maintain a hold on related roles such as Venom. That character led to two fairly successful spin-off films, and 2022’s Morbius allowed another Spidey-related personality to reach the big screen.

Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) suffers from a blood disorder that leaves him perpetually weak and disabled. Possessed of a brilliant mind, he devotes his life to a cure, and after he invents a revolutionary synthetic blood, his research focuses on aspects of vampire bats.

Eventually Michael comes up with a therapy that melds human and bat genes, and he uses it on himself. While this cures his condition and indeed grants him superhuman abilities, the treatment turns him into a literal vampire who needs to drink blood to survive.

As I’ve noted in other reviews, I became a voracious fan of superhero comics in the early 1980s. This only lasted a couple years, but over that span, I consumed literally everything Marvel and DC published.

If I ever saw Morbius across that period, I don’t remember him. If I read the character’s Wiki entry correctly, it sounds like the character remained largely dormant from the mid-1970s until the early 1990s, so I probably missed him.

This left the role pretty much unfamiliar to me as I entered Morbius, but this doesn’t mean I entered the film without expectations. No, because Morbius received terrible reviews, I held out little hope that it would offer a rousing adventure.

Still, you never know. I was one of approximate 12 people who enjoyed 2015’s much-loathed Fantastic Four, so I held out hope that Morbius would work for me.

And for a little while, I kept that optimism alive. As we explore the character’s roots, Morbius manages just enough intrigue to keep me involved across the first act.

However, Morbius becomes less and less interesting as it goes, largely because it develops massive, gaping plot holes. Actually, “develops” doesn’t quite seem accurate, as the film suffers from narrative gaps from the start.

Often when movies suffer from significant story-telling issues, these occur because the filmmakers lacked the time to fine-tune their work. That becomes a particular problem with expensive “tent pole” projects, because studios set release dates and force the flicks into multiplexes, ready or not.

No one can make that excuse for Morbius, as the COVID-19 pandemic repeatedly delayed it. The production wrapped in June 2019 but release got postponed repeatedly, a factor that allowed for reshoots and polishing.

With that in mind, the incoherence of Morbius becomes all the more perplexing. The filmmakers had nearly three years after the main shoot concluded to create a quality movie and this mess ended up as the result?

Make no mistake: Morbius offers a tale with little logic or narrative clarity. It often feels like entire chunks of the script went missing and the filmmakers just shrugged and decided to work around it.

Often I complain that movies run too long, but in the case of Morbius, the end product seems too brief. I say so not because I wanted to spend more time in the film’s universe but because I think more exposition would allow the flick to at least seem more coherent and to flow better.

Morbius barely bothers with any attempts to explore the characters. For instance, we know that sick young Michael (Charlie Shotwell) gets stuck in a care facility for many years, but we learn nothing about his background.

What happened to his family? I don’t know, as the movie doesn’t seem to care.

This doesn’t change as the film progresses, so we remain stuck with an adult Michael about whom we know only the most basic of basics, and none of the supporting roles receive exploration either.

A lot of this doesn’t even make sense in the film’s universe. For instance, we see that young Michael gets to know a lot of other sick kids over the years, and so many of them die that he just calls them all “Milo” rather than learn their actual names, an obvious attempt to avoid emotional attachments.

However, when a new “Milo” named Lucien (Joseph Esson) nearly perishes on the spot, Michael drops the “Milo” conceit and uses the boy’s real name. The two develop a bond that persists over the decades.

Logically, adult Michael would call grown-up Lucien (Matt Smith) by his real name, but no: he remains “Milo”. Not only that, but everyone else who knows Lucien refers to him as “Milo” as well.

Perhaps a deleted scene would allow this concept to make sense. In the film as released, however, it just seems weird, and the movie suffers from plenty of other perplexing choices.

As I watched Morbius, I made a mental note of the various weird cuts or scenes that felt incomplete. I figured I would mention these specifics in the body of my review.

However, Morbius comes with so many perplexing transitions and sequences that seem abrupt or unfinished that I abandoned these plans. I’ve already devoted a lot of words to this movie, so additional details would fall into “flogging a dead horse” category.

Suffice it to say that Morbius largely fails as a movie. While not the worst comic book adaptation I’ve seen, it becomes such a mess that it never really connects.

Footnote: two tag scenes pop up during the end credits. In an unusual touch, both connect and don’t stand alone.

These point toward a sequel. Nothing else appears after the second sequence concludes.


The Disc Grades: Picture B+/ Audio A-/ Bonus C-

Morbius appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The image offered the expected high quality affair.

Overall sharpness appeared solid. A few slightly soft shots materialized along the way – mainly via low-light interiors - but they stayed minor and negligible.

The image lacked shimmering or jagged edges, and edge haloes failed to mar the presentation. I also didn’t see any print flaws.

Morbius emphasized the modern orange and teal palette, and the results seemed fine. The colors didn’t overcome their stylistic restrictions, but they appeared appropriate, and the movie’s semi-dingy feel meant they didn’t come across as overwhelming.

Blacks were deep and dark, while shadows seemed smooth and clear. The movie gave us a strong transfer.

I also felt pleased with the often immersive DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Morbius, as the audio seemed to accentuate the visuals well. It mixed “bat-POV” information with plenty of action.

In the front, the track showed good stereo music and presented various elements in a logical and natural manner. The elements blended neatly and created a seamless sense of the environment.

From the rear, aggressive violent components added kick to the proceedings and made the mix more involving. As mentioned, the bat-centered information created a fine sense of that perspective.

Audio quality seemed positive. Dialogue consistently appeared natural and crisp, with no edginess or intelligibility issues on display.

Music was clear and dynamic. The score seemed broadly reproduced and complemented the mix nicely.

Effects always were distinctive and concise, and the mix boasted fine clarity for the louder moments. Bass response always seemed rich and firm. The mix worked really well.

As we shift to extras, we find Outtakes & Bloopers. This reel spans two minutes, 35 seconds and shows standatd blooper reel content, for better or for worse.

Some featurettes follow, and Lights, Camera, Action runs five minutes, 26 seconds. It involves notes from executive producer Louise Rosner, director Daniel Espinosa, producer Lucas Foster, production designer Stefania Cella, visual effects supervisor Matthew Butler, and actors Jared Leto and Matt Smith.

“Lights” examines Espinosa’s approach to the material and the production team, effects and design choices. A few minor insights emerge but most of “Lights” feels superficial.

Defining the Anti-Hero runs four minutes, 43 seconds and includes Espinosa, Leto, and Foster.

“Defining” covers characters and story. Don’t expect much actual substance here.

Next comes Doing the Stunt Work, a four-minute, 39-second piece with Leto, Espinosa, Smith, and 2nd unit director Gary Powell.

As implied by the title, “Work” examines stunts and action. We find a few useful nuggets among the usual fluff.

The Good, Bad & Ugly lasts three minutes, 30 seconds and provides notes from Espinosa, Foster, Rosner, Foster, Smith, Leto, and actors Tyrese Gibson, Al Madrigal and Adria Arjona.

“Ugly” tells us about various cast members. This tells us how awesome everyone is – yawn.

After this we get Nocturnal Easter Eggs, a two-minute, 23-second view of various hidden tidbits in the film. It becomes a short but fun picee.

Finally, From Human to Vampire occupies five minutes, 13 seconds and presents remarks from Espinosa, Butler, Rosner, and stunt double Greg Townley.

“Vampire” tells us a bit about visual effects. It gives us a few decent notes, though it never becomes terribly informative.

Under Theatrical Marketing, we find four clips: “Press Tour” (2:52), “Lore” (1:05), “Universe” (0:56) and “Stain” (0:36). “Tour” shows excerpts from Leto’s world tour to sell the film,

The other three offer short promo clips in which Leto discusses aspects of the movie. These don’t all up to much.

The disc opens with ads for Uncharted, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, Umma, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: No Way Home. No trailer for Morbius appears here.

Can you find worse comic book movies than Morbius? Sure, but that stands as weak praise, as it becomes an incoherent and flawed experience. The Blu-ray brings solid picture and audio along with superficial bonus materials. Morbius turns into a blah supernatural

Viewer Film Ratings: 2.4 Stars Number of Votes: 5
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Review Archive:  # | A-C | D-F | G-I | J-L | M-O | P-R | S-U | V-Z | Viewer Ratings | Main