Morbius (EXCLUSIVE SERIES) (NETFLIX) (SECOND LOOK!)

Studios: Sony Pictures/Marvel Entertainment

Taglines: The line between hero and villain will be broken.

A new Marvel legend arrives.

Plot: Dangerously ill with a rare blood disorder and determined to save others from the same fate, Dr. Morbius attempts a desperate gamble. While at first it seems to be a radical success, a darkness inside of him is soon unleashed.

Cast

Jared Leto - Dr. Michael Morbius

Matt Smith - Milo

Adria Arjona - Martine Bancroft

Jared Harris - Dr. Emil Nicholas

Tyrese Gibson - Agent Simon Stroud

Al Madrigal - Agent Rodriguez

Michael Keaton - Adrian Toomes

Joanna Burnett - Nurse Kristen Sutton

Writer(s): Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (Power Rangers; Gods of Egypt)

Director Daniel Espinosa (Life; Child 44; Safe House)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, some frightening images and brief strong language (104 minutes)

Last April, I initially reviewed 'Morbius' for the Examiner. After looking at the trailers, I knew this wasn't going to be the best comic book movie. When I first watched it, I thought it was OK at the most. And, haven't seen it since.

Well, I figured it was time to give this another look! The other Sony-Marvel movies, the 'Venom' series, I warmed up to more after giving them another watch. Well, maybe watching 'Morbius' would get me to like the movie more just like the 'Venom' movies.' And .... I still think it's eh.

There are maybe a couple segments that are mildly entertaining. The action really wasn't that great and the entire movie is generally predictable. Some of the visual effects are fine yet it looks kind of dated.

'Morbius' should have had some Spider-Man easter eggs and connections in the movie. If I remember right, the first trailer had quite a few web-slinger nods. And, the filmmakers really botched it up with the two post-credit scenes featuring the Vulture! They don't really make sense!

Hopefully Sony gets better at making movies based on Spider-Man villlains that don't feature the web-slinger. If you want to give this another try, you can catch 'Morbius' on Netflix and various VOD services.

Here are some interesting tidbits for 'Morbius':

• The movie generated various memes that ironically praised it and caused it to trend numerous times. Sony saw what appeared to be renewed interest in the movie and decided to re-released it in theaters (a little over 1,000 theaters) on June 2, 2022. However, the memes didn't translate into box office success, as it only made an average of $289 per theater, causing media outlets to report it bombed a second time.

• In the first crime scene, Agent Rodriguez states that this was the weirdest crime after "that thing in San Francisco." This is a reference to 'Venom.'

• The second trailer features the song "People Are Strange," which was previously used in the 1987 vampire classic 'The Lost Boys.'

• Morbius had a brief cameo in the deleted alternate ending of 'Blade' as a tease for this planned appearance as the main villain of 'Blade II.' However, he wasn't included in the sequel because Marvel had sold the character's rights to Artisan Entertainment to produce a standalone 'Morbius' movie.

• The name of the cargo ship in the beginning of the movie is Murnau (as in F.W. Murnau, the director of the 1922 film 'Nosferatu.') Like the cargo ship, the Murnau arrives in port with its entire crew dead and drained of blood.

• MCU fans prefer to think that the Adrian Toomes/Vulture who appears from another universe in the post-credit scenes is a variant, and not the one from MCU's 2017 movie 'Spider-Man: Homecoming,' despite the confirmation that it's the same character. Vulture's appearance in 'Morbius' is hard to reconcile with how his character arc was resolved in the 2017 movie, given that his flight equipment was destroyed, and he would've had to rebuild it without Chitauri-based tech; not to mention how the logic behind his appearance in the universe doesn't get with how 'No Way Home' presented Dr. Strange's spell (where people from other universes would be pulled into the MCU, not vice versa). However, 'Multiverse of Madness' showed that his spell had some serious and unexpected ramifications that may explain some of these inconsistencies.

• This is the second Sony Spider-Man related movie to tie into the MCU, after 'Venom: Let There Be Carnage.'

• 'Morbius' grossed $73.9 million domestic, and $93.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $167.5 million.

https://youtu.be/SQK-QxxtE8Y