Sony's MORBIUS THE LIVING VAMPIRE starring Jared Leto (2022) 4 4

[Bosco685]

On 4/3/2022 at 8:23 AM, Gatsby77 said:

Counterpoint: No.

There were plenty of reasons to dislike this film well before seeing it. That the final project ended up being about as bad as foreseen isn't some kind of self-fulfilling prophecy - it's merely predictable.

The reasons?

1) This project was suspect from the beginning - because Morbius is such a minor character in the Marvel (even Spider-Man) mythos. It can be done (see Blade) - but that's the exception, not the rule.

Venom? Sure. He was one of the most popular comic book characters of the '90s - and that popularity endures.

Morbius? Not so much. He's the Marvel equivalent of if DC opted to do a tragic Shakespearean solo film about Man-Bat.

2) The trailers for this were laughable.

3) The lead. Jared Leto is an actor I actually like, but who has damaged his reputation with his over-the-top method acting over the last decade, well-deserved Oscar or no - AND (separately) gained the scorn of comic book fans at large for his off-key Joker portrayal.

4) The massive delays - which weren't just Covid-related, but also so they could juggle the release so this came after Spider-Man: No Way Home - and shoe in a very late-in-the-game reshoot after-credits sequence that would only make sense post-No Way Home.

There was *plenty* of reason to pre-judge this film - and that pre-judgement seems validated by the critical response.

That smacks of New Mutants - knowing you had a turd on your hands but had to release it eventually.

 

I'm sure you reinforce these images in your head, though I agree Morbius was never high on my desires list for a film. But then again, Venom was far down any Marvel mental list of properties to see in film and yet I had a great time with the first film and a good time with the second film.

Meanwhile, "laughable trailers" and statements like that are meant to justify celebrating the failure of a film. It's the mindset of some that unfortunately leads to the environment we have today.

[D84]

The trailers weren't laughable, just uninteresting. 

[Sauce Dog]

On 4/3/2022 at 10:07 AM, D84 said:

The trailers weren't laughable, just uninteresting. 

Yup, I think the funny moment that sticks out to most is how they edited out echolocation for bat-radar. Something so minor and dumb that wouldn't have otherwise been news if anything else in the trailer was actually interesting and got the community talking. 

I was hoping the movie would be at least shlock/campy bad (the trailers gave me a 2000s heavy CGI throwaway summer movie vibe so there was potential for some fun), but at the end of the day it suffered from the worst thing IMO a movie could do; being bland and utterly forgettable. Horrible movies I can get behind (I just rewatched The Island of Doctor Moreau - now THAT is a bad Hollywood flick, but is a great rewatch that can be appreciated for different reasons if you first watch the Lost Souls doc), but Morbius was not bad enough to be good nor good enough to be bad. Solid 3-4 / 10 (mostly for starting fairly well and Jared Harris). Is it the worst superhero movie ever? No, not even close, but if that is the bar people are already talking about you know it ain't a good thing.

To me, the first movie appearance of Morbius back when the first Blade movie came out on DVD was far more memorable of an appearance for him that actually had more impact and left us with excitement for future films. I'm fine with films not re-inventing the wheel every time, or exploring crazy new ideas or techniques in each film, but if you are going to be unoriginal and by-the-numbers...at least get that right and make it interesting as I shovel down popcorn (or in this case tea and cake since I didn't watch it a theatre with a concession booth - I miss those).

Edited April 3, 2022 by Sauce Dog
foggy brain typos

[Gatsby77]

On 4/3/2022 at 10:50 AM, Sauce Dog said:

To me, the first movie appearance of Morbius back in the first Blade movie came out on DVD was far more memorable of an appearance for him that actually had more impact and left us with excitement for future films.

Wait - there's a Morbius deleted scene on the Blade DVD???

And yes - there's a big difference between a straight-up bad comic book movie (New Mutants, Suicide Squad, Jonah Hex, BvS, ASM 2, Punisher War Zone) and a truly terrible "so-bad-it's-good" comic book movie you'd watch (or re-watch) when you're drunk (Superman 3, both Ghost Rider films).

What makes the Ghost Rider films amazing is that everyone involved (esp. Nic Cage) *knows* it's ridiculous - and leans in anyway.

The first film scored amazing points for the scene that reveals Sam Elliott's character is Carter Slade - and then they ride off together to "Riders on the Storm." It's terrible, but *so good* at the same time.

And Spirits of Vengeance gives you not just Cage, but Idris Elba, Christopher Lambert and Dan Ketch as a demonically possessed pre-teen. 

The film transcends bad to reach a type of nirvana of truly terrible.

[paperheart]

[Sauce Dog]

On 4/3/2022 at 11:16 AM, Gatsby77 said:

Wait - there's a Morbius deleted scene on the Blade DVD???

And yes - there's a big difference between a straight-up bad comic book movie (New Mutants, Suicide Squad, Jonah Hex, BvS, ASM 2, Punisher War Zone) and a truly terrible "so-bad-it's-good" comic book movie you'd watch (or re-watch) when you're drunk (Superman 3, both Ghost Rider films).

What makes the Ghost Rider films amazing is that everyone involved (esp. Nic Cage) *knows* it's ridiculous - and leans in anyway.

The first film scored amazing points for the scene that reveals Sam Elliott's character is Carter Slade - and then they ride off together to "Riders on the Storm." It's terrible, but *so good* at the same time.

And Spirits of Vengeance gives you not just Cage, but Idris Elba, Christopher Lambert and Dan Ketch as a demonically possessed pre-teen. 

The film transcends bad to reach a type of nirvana of truly terrible.

Yup, it was a deleted alternate ending. He appears in the distance during the day (you don't get a close look at him, but everyone knew who it was supposed to be and production meant for it to spin off with him in future movies - I'm not sure why they couldn't use him or what happened afterwards). But being a comic fan and just knowing it was supposed to be Morbius was enough to get us excited for the sequel possibilities.



The Ghost Rider films are a good example of trash that can be entertaining once you accept 'the joke'. I personally think Spirits of Vengeance has aged surprisingly well (it had a decent pacing and an okay -script structure that was at least followed, regardless of quality).

Edited April 3, 2022 by Sauce Dog

[bentbryan]

On 4/3/2022 at 11:49 AM, Sauce Dog said:

Yup, it was a deleted alternate ending. He appears in the distance during the day (you don't get a close look at him, but everyone knew who it was supposed to be and production meant for it to spin off with him in future movies - I'm not sure why they couldn't use him or what happened afterwards). But being a comic fan and just knowing it was supposed to be Morbius was enough to get us excited for the sequel possibilities.



The Ghost Rider films are a good example of trash that can be entertaining once you accept 'the joke'. I personally think Spirits of Vengeance has aged surprisingly well (it had a decent pacing and an okay ---script structure that was at least followed, regardless of quality).

I did not know about this, thanks! I just checked it out. Too bad they didn’t try to use him in the second movie. 

Edited April 3, 2022 by bentbryan

[Bosco685]

On 4/3/2022 at 10:07 AM, D84 said:

The trailers weren't laughable, just uninteresting. 

THAT is more of what I can get behind.

The trailers didn't tease me in the least that we were going to see the wider SonyVerse world like the other films did. Which is crazy after Into The Spider-Verse, Venom and then Spider-Man: No Way Home. You would think the magic sauce was revealed now what fans are looking for.

Time will tell. But the hate for this film can come across as unsettling.

[Bosco685]

On 4/3/2022 at 11:16 AM, Gatsby77 said:

And yes - there's a big difference between a straight-up bad comic book movie (New Mutants, Suicide Squad, Jonah Hex, BvS, ASM 2, Punisher War Zone)

You truly missed out, as BVS is not a straight-up bad comic book movie. And it was so impactful you can't seem to get it out of your head.

[Randall Dowling]

So I saw Morbius today.  An old friend that I hadn't seen in a couple of years wanted to get together and he suggested we see it.  I'm not going to mince words in my assessment.

Spoiler

As I said before, I had very low expectations going in and I'm not a fan of Jared Leto.  But that's not the worst thing about the movie.  It's a terrible story.  So badly written, I'm not sure it even qualifies as a story.  It's more a sequence of highly stylized events, at least a few of which are directly stolen from other movies (not an homage- copied, in a bad way).  Action sequences are so incoherent they make Michael Bay look good.  I fell asleep in the theater at least 3 times. 

My friend was very excited to see it as he was a big fan of Morbius in comics (incidentally, so am I- ASM 101, 102, etc.).  Afterward my pal turned to me and said "That was really, really bad!"  My friend is the kind of guy that finds the bright side of everything in life and that was his response.

The movie is garbage and you can't get the 2 hours back.  My recommendation:  hard pass.  It's a truly bad film.

 

[Joshua33]

@Randall Dowling that's unfortunate. At least we have Blade to look forward to, on the Marvel Vampire side.

[Sauce Dog]

On 4/3/2022 at 6:24 PM, Randall Dowling said:

So I saw Morbius today.  An old friend that I hadn't seen in a couple of years wanted to get together and he suggested we see it.  I'm not going to mince words in my assessment.

  Hide contents

As I said before, I had very low expectations going in and I'm not a fan of Jared Leto.  But that's not the worst thing about the movie.  It's a terrible story.  So badly written, I'm not sure it even qualifies as a story.  It's more a sequence of highly stylized events, at least a few of which are directly stolen from other movies (not an homage- copied, in a bad way).  Action sequences are so incoherent they make Michael Bay look good.  I fell asleep in the theater at least 3 times. 

My friend was very excited to see it as he was a big fan of Morbius in comics (incidentally, so am I- ASM 101, 102, etc.).  Afterward my pal turned to me and said "That was really, really bad!"  My friend is the kind of guy that finds the bright side of everything in life and that was his response.

The movie is garbage and you can't get the 2 hours back.  My recommendation:  hard pass.  It's a truly bad film.

 

I've no problem with movies referencing other classic films, but if you are going to make such an effort to really do an non-subtle callback to another classic film so explicitly then you better make sure you do it justice or put a new spin on it - otherwise it just makes your film seem clearly worse when the audience makes a direct comparison to a superior experience (in this case The Fly).

[Sauce Dog]

On 4/3/2022 at 4:37 PM, Bosco685 said:

You truly missed out, as BVS is not a straight-up bad comic book movie. And it was so impactful you can't seem to get it out of your head.

I second this missing out motion, but not for BvS (which I do think was a steamer) but rather the aforementioned Punisher: War Zone. It's a decent example of a so-bad-its-good comic film in retrospect (those watching it for the first time can be forgiven in throwing their popcorn at the screen in anger though), especially when you can appreciate the making-of stories behind it and the bonkers attention to comic-style that they aimed for.

Man, was it ever bad...but I won't ever forget rocket launchers against annoying parkour thugs or trying to replicate panels from the books as literal as possible. Moments like these are what was missing from Morbius IMO.

[Bosco685]

On 4/3/2022 at 6:54 PM, Sauce Dog said:

I second this missing out motion, but not for BvS (which I do think was a steamer) but rather the aforementioned Punisher: War Zone. It's a decent example of a so-bad-its-good comic film in retrospect (those watching it for the first time can be forgiven in throwing their popcorn at the screen in anger though), especially when you can appreciate the making-of stories behind it and the bonkers attention to comic-style that they aimed for.

Man, was it ever bad...but I won't ever forget rocket launchers against annoying parkour thugs or trying to replicate panels from the books as literal as possible. Moments like these are what was missing from Morbius IMO.

BVS was not a steamer. That is nuts!

But at least you called out another comic book movie like the best of Festivus we can celebrate on here.

[kav]

[kav]

On 4/3/2022 at 3:24 PM, Randall Dowling said:

So I saw Morbius today.  An old friend that I hadn't seen in a couple of years wanted to get together and he suggested we see it.  I'm not going to mince words in my assessment.

  Hide contents

As I said before, I had very low expectations going in and I'm not a fan of Jared Leto.  But that's not the worst thing about the movie.  It's a terrible story.  So badly written, I'm not sure it even qualifies as a story.  It's more a sequence of highly stylized events, at least a few of which are directly stolen from other movies (not an homage- copied, in a bad way).  Action sequences are so incoherent they make Michael Bay look good.  I fell asleep in the theater at least 3 times. 

My friend was very excited to see it as he was a big fan of Morbius in comics (incidentally, so am I- ASM 101, 102, etc.).  Afterward my pal turned to me and said "That was really, really bad!"  My friend is the kind of guy that finds the bright side of everything in life and that was his response.

The movie is garbage and you can't get the 2 hours back.  My recommendation:  hard pass.  It's a truly bad film.

 

-hard passing.

[Bosco685]

On 4/3/2022 at 7:46 PM, kav said:

Third time that same joke has been posted in only a few days. But each time the person posting has the biggest smile as they think, "Wait until they get a load of this!"

[kav]

On 4/3/2022 at 4:52 PM, Bosco685 said:

Third time that same joke has been posted in only a few days. But each time the person posting has the biggest smile as they think, "Wait until they get a load of this!"

 

[Bosco685]

  CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT 

At this stage we need to conduct a win-nothing contest. The rules are you vote who posted this image the best. The winner get the badge of glory for great Morbius joke repeat to date. So this is a big deal, and should be treated as such.  

On 3/31/2022 at 6:03 PM, Gatsby77 said:

On 4/2/2022 at 9:31 AM, Mecha_Fantastic said:

On 4/3/2022 at 7:46 PM, kav said:

Votes can be cast by flushing your toilet by 12 AM EST.

• One Flush - First entry
• Two Flushes - Second entry
• Three Flushes - Third entry

And please, no shill flushing. Such infractions will result in two (2) viewings of The Eternals and three (3) viewings of Morbius.

Ready? Set? Flush!

 

[kav]

On 4/3/2022 at 4:59 PM, Bosco685 said:

  CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT 

At this stage we need to conduct a win-nothing contest. The rules are you vote who posted this image the best. The winner get the badge of glory for great Morbius joke repeat to date. So this is a big deal, and should be treated as such.  

Votes can be cast by flushing your toilet by 12 AM EST.

• One Flush - First entry
• Two Flushes - Second entry
• Three Flushes - Third entry

And please, no shill flushing. Such infractions will result in two (2) viewings of The Eternals and three (3) viewings of Morbius.

Ready? Set? Flush!

 

hey Morbius recycled pretty much every superwhatever trope so I can recycle this baby.