Morbius, the new Sony-produced Marvel comic book character movie playing in cinemas for the last two weeks, has dropped a whopping 73 percent at the American box-office, according to reports (it debuted at 35 million dollars, but dropped to 10 million dollars the next week). But then again, the film was always going to be a tough sell.

You know what would have made the film better? A better angle on the story, and perhaps some out-of-the-box thinking.

Ranking 17th on the list of worst-reviewed films on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes (the film has an average of 3.9 out of 10; the top spot of the list goes to Max Steel), Morbius is a disaster that reminds one of the late 1990s and early 2000s era of superhero movies, a time where Marvel hadn’t yet begun to prove the industry wrong when it came to telling engrossing stories about superheroes.

Morbius, the character, was created as an enemy to Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man, issue 101 (October, 1971) by comic book writer Roy Thomas and Gill Kane. Thomas was known for his extensive work as the writer of Conan the Barbarian for Marvel, as well as for being Stan Lee’s first successor as an editor for the publication; Kane was one of the most noted pencillers at the time.

Sony’s solo film of the Marvel character Morbius, despite the efforts of the redoubtable Jared Leto, is quite a mess, and reminds one of the time before Marvel made superhero films super-cool

Although introduced as a villain, Morbius soon became a brooding anti-hero of sorts, working with and against Spider-Man, the vampire hunter Blade and Doctor Strange in the last 50-odd years.

As per his origins, Michael Morbius (played by Jared Leto in the movie) is a Nobel Award-winning biologist with a specialisation in haematology (the study of blood in medical sciences), who suffers from a rare blood condition that gives him a diaphanous, thin and unpleasant appearance, and the inability to walk.

In the comics, Morbius’s research puts him in the middle of a battle between the Lizard and Spider-Man, who were both seeking a cure for their individual mutations at the time. Morbius, however, experimented with the cure on his own body, unknowingly turning himself into a type of pseudo-vampire that needed blood to live.

Relatively very little of Morbius changed when the character was introduced in animated series and other mass media. The biggest change to the character came in 1994’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series, which changed Morbius’ blood-sucking to plasma-sucking via suction openings in his hands (the show couldn’t show blood-sucking vampires to children).

As an anti-hero character who doesn’t really want to hurt people, Morbius has a good enough fanbase. But that fanbase is still nothing in comparison to another Marvel anti-hero: Venom.

That character too, by the way, has his own share of woes when it comes to film adaptation; in layman terms, both Venom movies sucked.

Morbius’ solo film is written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (Dracula Untold, The Last Witch Hunter) and directed by Daniel Espinosa (Safehouse, Life). The screen story mostly stays faithful to its comic book origins and, as is obligatory, by the end of the film, the story places Morbius in the continuation of the larger spider-verse triggered by Spider-Man and Doctor Strange in Spider-Man: No Way Home (Spoiler Alert: the film places The Vulture, played by Michael Keaton from Spider-Man: Homecoming, into Morbius’ timeline).

The adaptation, overall, is quite weak and unengaging, even for people who know in-depth about the character.

Morbius’ production budget is a respectable 75 million dollars (the film sits at a worldwide gross of 125 million dollars) but, at times, one wonders where all that cash went. Most of the time (say between 60 and 70 percent) the story takes place in Morbius’ lab, where his romantic interest Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona) works. The other prominent location is a long, dimly-lit, fluorescent-hued corridor that connects to the said lab.

Yes, the image one gets in the mind is hardly exciting.

To create a stronger bond between the hero and the villain, the screenplay gives Morbius a surrogate brother by the name of Lucien (Matt Smith), who also shares his blood illness, and that eventually gives the film its antagonist. Morbius and Lucien fight atop buildings and inside underground subways. The visual effects are quite nice but, in the broader scope of the production, they and the relationship Morbius has with Lucien, amount to very little.

In literary terms, Morbius follows a very effective protagonist’s stereotype. Like The Hulk (an adaptation of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein by comic-god Stan Lee) he is a genius, and a good-hearted man who suffers from a disease that grants him spectacular powers, but at the cost of losing his sanity. Like The Hulk, and Dr Frankenstein’s monster, he wants to be left alone. Of course, that’s never truly on the cards for any superhero character. The stereotype, in cinematic terms, hasn’t been handled well in both The Hulk’s or Morbius’ case.

The film Morbius’s DNA also matches with another sometimes-forgotten Marvel film: the Wesley Snipes-starrer Blade. The two movies deal with modern day vampires in metropolitan cities; taking a page from Blade and Blade II’s book would have done wonders for this film.

The only thing that actually does wonders for Morbius is Leto’s performance; the actor is, at his worst, engaging and, at his best, borderline brilliant (when, in recent history, has Leto just been good enough?). Leto perfectly encapsulates Morbius’ suffering and dilemmas, giving the audience barely enough reason to not walk away from cinemas.

The other factors — such as direction, screenplay, production — however, give you just as many reasons to go through with a walkout.

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

Published in Dawn, ICON, April 17th, 2022