Daniel Espinosa’s vampire thriller wastes a promising friendship on thin writing and muddled action. Jared Leto takes it seriously, Matt Smith finds some fun, and neither can make it worth the evening.
Daniel Espinosa’s Morbius starts with a workable idea: two friends whose shared suffering might make a vampire story matter. That gives this particular scientist a reason to interest us before any transformation, and gives the horror somewhere personal to begin. The film is poor because it spends so little time developing that friendship and so much on action that becomes difficult to follow. The 105 minutes feel longer once the fights begin to repeat themselves.
Jared Leto plays Dr. Michael Morbius with a seriousness that initially helps: a mad scientist is more interesting when he believes there is a sound reason for what he is doing. The friendship with Milo, played by Matt Smith, offers a way of understanding that determination without another explanation from the screenplay. Both actors give the shared suffering some weight. What is missing is enough writing to make us interested in these men beyond the problem that connects them.
The screenplay by Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama favours exposition, then hurries through the backstory that might have made the exposition unnecessary. We learn enough to follow the premise, but the supporting characters are too thin to make each new difficulty count. Adria Arjona gives Martine Bancroft a welcome presence, though the part has too little scope to change the film’s direction. It is frustrating to see capable actors supplying concern that the script has not taken the trouble to build.
Oliver Wood’s cinematography is more persuasive in the gloom, where the nocturnal setting briefly gives the film the unease it needs. When light breaks through, we can look at the image without spending so much effort trying to distinguish what is in it. Stefania Cella’s production design contributes to that atmosphere, although the surroundings make less impression than the performers. There is enough visual care here to suggest a modest horror film could have worked if the story had stayed with its people.
Pietro Scalia’s editing is least helpful when the action takes over, cutting so choppily that movement stops being something we can follow. The digital transformations do Jared Leto no favours either, obscuring a committed performance with effects that struggle to convince. We were bored by the fights because the cutting kept making it harder to care who was doing what. Jon Ekstrand’s score cannot restore the suspense lost in those passages. More of the performers and a clearer view of their movements would have done more to help.
Matt Smith is the useful exception to the prevailing solemnity. He supplies some of the pleasure in excess that a vampire film can reasonably promise, and the change in energy is welcome. We do not need this kind of horror to be respectable, but we do need it to take some pleasure in frightening or surprising us. Here the familiar vampire material is treated with such dutiful seriousness that even its silliness seldom becomes fun. Unless following this particular scientist matters to you, we would spend the evening elsewhere.
