After the first two Venoms, Sony's Spider-Man Universe continues to expand this Wednesday, March 30, 2022 with the release of Morbius. Directed by Daniel Espinosa (Life – Unknown Origin, Close Security, Easy Money), Morbius focuses on the living vampire, a Spider-Man antagonist quite famous among comic book readers. To embody it, Sony has chosen Jared Leto, who leaves the Joker and the DC universe to join the competition. Unfortunately, as with the Venom, Morbius is a totally failed blockbuster…
Morbius: the Venom phenomenon continues
From the first trailers, Morbius announced nothing good. And we were not mistaken… Morbius is a superhero movie that is literally 15 years behind its time. All the clichés of the superhero movie of the early 2000s are in Morbius. Daniel Espinosa replays the classic card of the origin story, and everything that follows from it. 
The spectators then find themselves in front of an entertainment that takes up all the codes of the clichéd origin story : two best friends who will end up dividing and become worse enemies (as in X-Men), the death of the father figure (as in half of the superhero movies), the flashback of childhood (we see you Daredevil), a total absence of humor, a backward love interest, the apprehension of powers, the ethical questioning of the use of powers, etc… Everything is there. Morbius travels back in time to resume superheroic scenario patterns like Elektra, X-Men Origins Wolverine or The Fantastic 4 that we thought forgotten and behind us. Inevitably, because of this tired narrative skeleton, everything is telephoned in Morbius. The story is highly anticipated and suddenly without much interest. In fact, Morbius is a film that underestimates its viewers. Today, the superheroic genre is extremely widespread. The codes of the genre are known to the audience, which is increasingly demanding and experienced. 
The formula of the classic origin story no longer works in the world of superheroes in 2022. Hence the idea that the feature film is 15 years behind its time. Marvel Studios understands that this kind of film does not work, that's why Shang-Chi and The Eternals are not classic origin stories, but works that reinvent this concept. Morbius prefers to go all out into a terribly obsolete formula.
The magic of Venom still operates
Morbius looks a lot like the first two Venom (especially the second). Again, the feature film is carried by hideous CGI and disgusting action sequences. Filmed in a similar way, the action sequences shot entirely in computer graphics are a record of ugliness. The final climax of Morbius is identical to that of Venom: Let There be Carnage, even in the way of turning the ultimate confrontation. It's a nameless visual poverty, and a rare softness in the superhero universe. Daniel Espinosa tries to energize his staging with some slow motion, again very ugly, placed randomly in the action sequences. Gratuitous effects, therefore, which bring absolutely nothing concrete and thoughtful in the way of thinking and manufacturing action. It's simple, we have the impression of finding the action sequences of Ghost Rider (we hardly exaggerate)… 
If Jared Leto is not too bad in the skin of Morbius, Matt Smith wallows totally in the skin of a villain smooth, empty, cliché to the possible and without any consistency. While he cabotines as he can, it is the weakness of writing of his character that brings him bad luck. Here he is embarked on a walking stereotype, a simple mirror of the hero, with no other goal than to tyrannize the weakest with his new acquired powers. And then, the trailers of Morbius promised us connections with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), including via this shot with an image of Spider-Man, or another shot on the Oscorp building. But these sequences were removed from the film, without explanation. These were ultimately false promotional images since Morbius is never attached to the MCU, except for the time of two stupid and crude post-credits sequences. 
Thus, Sony is rushing into an ugly, absurd, crude, miserably constructed connected universe. Sony wants to go all out on the map of ugly blockbusters, in the form of stupid B series. And the studio has a crazy talent for reducing the personality of its directors to nothing. After Andy Serkis, it is Daniel Espinosa's turn to lose all his substance. In short, we are engulfed in a universe that seems to want to capitalize on a Morbius / Venom style. Hard… https://youtu.be/6pGgkOcIyQA
