Ninety percent of all superhero movies end up with two guys fighting it out on a roof. It’s a cliche of the genre that seemingly can’t be avoided, and indeed “Morbius” has a scene like that, too. But it’s how the new film handles the superhero cliches that makes it a success.
Bad directors, when confronted with stale material, choose to blow it out, to make it bigger, noisier and longer, partly just to show off and partly to distract audiences from the fundamental emptiness of what they’re trying to sell. But “Morbius” director Daniel Espinosa goes in the other direction. If it’s something you’ve seen before, like a rooftop battle, he’ll give you just enough and no more. But if it’s something new, something interesting between the characters, he lavishes time.
Espinosa can’t be praised enough for the result.
Consider this: He’s from Sweden, and he has never directed a superhero movie before. That means that “Morbius,” a Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters film, was his big break. Yet instead of making a bloated, self-important atrocity like the nearly three-hour-long“The Batman,”he actually chose to make a good movie. Moreover, he chose to make a good movie about avampiresuperhero, as if that were easy. And he did in 104 minutes, including credits.
It could have been awful. Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) is a Nobel laureate suffering from a blood disease that has been killing him since the day he was born. With time running out, he embarks on a line of clandestine research involving mixing human DNA with vampire bat DNA. His intention is to extract one curative element from bats, but he gets more than he bargained for. He is restored to health, but he is also given superhuman strength and an insatiable thirst for human blood.
Leto (“House of Gucci”)是一个很好的演员,但如果任其发展,他可以啊verdo it. That would have been fatal here. Instead, Espinosa keeps all the performances naturalistic. The situations are extreme, but the emotions are real. In the end, the great appeal of Leto’s performance is that he doesn’t play Morbius as the usual solipsistic superhero, who only cares about his own deep feelings. Morbius is an entirely decent guy, who is appalled at the possibility of hurting others.
Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama’s script, based on the Marvel comics by Roy Thomas, is a skillful mix of elements from “The Fly,” “Dracula” and “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” From the beginning, the story has a sense of urgency, because the illness of Morbius and his best friend, Milo (Matt Smith), is made vivid. We meet them as suffering children, and then we see them as suffering adults, looking thin as death.
One of the remarkable visuals of “Morbius” is how Leto’s body is made to look almost skeletal, like that of a concentration camp victim. It’s so convincing one could easily believe that Leto lost 40 pounds for the role, as he did for “Dallas Buyers Club.” But then we see him in the next scene, post-transformation, looking muscular and robust.
Adria Arjona, who to this point has had a modest resume, stands out as Morbius’ fellow doctor and research assistant, the woman who would be his girlfriend if he were healthy enough to have one. Smith, who looks a little like a vampire bat to begin with, finds himself in the plum role of Morbius’ mercurial childhood pal, and Jared Harris brings a gentle reality to the role of Milo’s lifelong mentor and caretaker.
There’s no filler. At its best, “Morbius” keeps the audience riveted, wondering what will happen next. In the end, it ends up where all Marvel movies end up, on a roof, and looking like a blown-up computer screen. But the obligatory fireworks don’t go on long enough to spoil anything.
Against all odds, “Morbius” is an intelligent, human story.
M“Morbius”:Sci-fi action. Starring Jared Leto, Matt Smith and Adria Arjona. Directed by Daniel Espinosa. (PG-13. 104 minutes.) In theaters Friday, April 1.