Morbius is one long quick time event about battling bad habits

One of the reasons Sony keeps making movies like Morbius is that it doesn't involve Spider-Man at all. Daniel Espinosa wanted his new film to show that there is more to Michael Morbius than his run-ins with Peter Parker. Morbius' plot, pacing and performances feel ill-conceived. The movie calls into question the grand project of building an entire cinematic universe on Spider-Man.

Michael Morbius is a brilliant scientist and lifelong sufferers of a chronic blood disorder, and he is the main character in Morbius. Morbius has found success and fame, but he would give it all up in a heartbeat if it meant being able to restore both his own health and that of his childhood friend, Lucien.

The film is about Morbius saving his life in a scene from their youth. Morbius believes that by isolating certain elements of vampire DNA and mixing it with his own, he might be able to combat the effects of his disease. Morbius doesn't try to detail how bat DNA is supposed to factor into his condition or explain how he manages to transport hundreds of bats back to his laboratory after willingly walking into a swarm of them in a dramatic scene from the movie. Morbius wants you to understand that his idea works with animal test subjects, but soon with him as well.

Major beats are pulled from his early appearances in The Amazing Spider-Man, but one could be forgiven for not noticing it. The ban on supernatural creatures first lifted, freeing the comic book company to create characters like a living vampire. Morbius takes itself so seriously that it's laughable, unlike the early comics that focused on the fact that Spider-Man had six arms.

Morbius tried to portray itself as a horror about a mad scientist battling against a monster of his own making. It comes at the cost of a powerful hunger for blood that often plays like addiction. It makes Morbius realize that he traded one ailment for another. There are bags of blue synthetic blood that are always on hand in the scientist's lab and can be found in any of the city's ambulances.

Because Morbius can feel how his bloodlust drives him to kill, he sates his hunger by guzzling heavy hits of the cerulean liquid in scenes that feel cribbed from True Blood. In another universe, Morbius would investigate the idea of the eccentric founder of a synthetic blood company becoming a pseudo-vampire who also moonlights as a superhero. The movie in this universe opts for the road that is more traveled, one that is paved with flashy VFX, opaque character motivations, and a lengthy action sequence that plays like an overlong quick time event.

Morbius' character is not unique to super science in pursuit of curing ailments. Morbius is willing to depict disabled people as frail, weak victims whose lives are defined in relation to the able-bodied. The Morbius of the comics is a vampire whose power is weakened when he is hungry or in direct sunlight, and his paraplegic symptoms come back with a vengeance. It is difficult to watch Leto and Smith affect disabilities they do not have when you first see them.

It's unsurprising that Lucian and Milo were revealed to be Morbius and version of a big bad, after a bit of slap-fighting with their new vampire powers. Morbius is notable for how the movie sort of sidelines Michael's romance with Martine in favor of focusing on the friendship he shares with Lucian and Milo. More Robert Pattinson in The Batman than himself in WeCrashed, Leto plays Morbius like a brooding recluse of few words, and Smith plays Lucian / Milo like a Doctor Who villain. The idea of the two actors being friends is something that comes from the performances. There is something about the way the script wraps them up in each other's lives that makes them seem queer.

Even though Morbius isn't its own movie, you can see how many pieces of its story could be used for better projects. The trails of colored smoke that follow Morbius around as he flips through the air are pretty cool. Morbius does a better job of giving you the sense that it takes place in a larger world than Venom does.

The problem in Morbius is that it's too aware of its existence in a cinematic universe that doesn't exist. It feels like it might be responsible for how Morbius ends up feeling both proud and ashamed for even daring to utter Spider-Man's name. The implication is that Sony isn't through yet.

Morbius stars Michael Keaton, Al Madrigal, Charlie Shotwell, and others. The movie will be in theaters on April 1st.