The First Reactions To The Jared-Leto Starring ‘Morbius’ Are In, And Oh Boy, They Are Brutal

Maybe, just maybe, Oscar-winning Jared Leto should just say no to more comic book movies. Obviously, there are lots of hands in the cookie jar on projects like these, so one can’t really blame him for an entire movie’s quality (yet we can judge him for his Worst Joker), but the first (and sizeable) batch of Morbius: The Living Vampire reviews have arrived, and let’s just say that it’s not good. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie’s currently sitting at a 19% rotten rating after 79 reviews. And it doesn’t appear to even be so-bad-it’s-good, simply straight-up bad.

All of this is happening three months after the movie achieved the dubious most-delayed movie record of the pandemic. The film was initially due to arrive on July 10, 2020, and the eventual April 1, 2022 release date now feels like a cruel joke. Maybe that’s how it was always supposed to be for the movie about a so-called brilliant scientist who tries to cure his own blood disorder and ends up vamping out, but them’s the cards.

Whatever the case, Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is stumbling from the looks of things. The reactions and reviews are overwhelmingly negative, and that includes tweets and reviews from critics who have seen the movie and some (seriously funny) fake Twitter reactions. That last category will come last because you might need a laugh after this batch of misery. These first tweets (from critics who’ve legit seen Morbius) flat-out call it “bad” and “sloppy” and nonsensical with credits scenes that are “insulting” to audiences. This looks like the first Marvel Cinematic Miss.

The reviews don’t improve the situation. Here’s Alonso Duralde from The Wrap:

It’s become something of a running gag on the internet that “Morbius” isn’t really a movie. Online observers insist that, from its ever-changing release date over the last two years to its grim and somewhat goofy premise involving Jared Leto as a scientist who turns into a vampire, this has to be an elaborate prank and not an actual film… We can confirm that “Morbius” is, really and truly, a movie. Granted, it’s not much of a movie, but it’s a movie nonetheless.

Owen Gleiberman from Variety:

“Morbius” isn’t even a debacle. It’s a little over 90 minutes long if you don’t count the credits (which include what has to be the worst closing teaser I’ve ever seen in a Marvel movie — it ends with the word “Intriguing,” dangled as if Vincent Price had uttered it), and for all the overwrought push of Jon Ekstrand’s score, the film is nothing more than a flimsy time-killer, an early-April placeholder of a movie.

Kate Erbland from IndieWire:

Even the most basic elements of the film are incomprehensible. Michael has all the trappings of a bad guy — this is the kind of guy who has a massive chamber of bats in the middle of his lab, both for decor and research — but by the time he gifts yet another origami animal to someone he cares about, you’ll have to wonder, this dude is a villain? (Leto, who notoriously immerses himself in his work, could seemingly find little here, his Michael is somehow both confounding and very boring. )

Matt Donato from IGN:

Morbius presents its origin story with the most formulaic structure, as an overly serious Leto is doing the opposite of Tom Hardy’s campy Venom schtick that so many adore. It’s a choice that promotes Morbius’ moral conundrum as a self-conscious vampire over anything considered “superhero cinema fun,” taking everything deathly serious to an ultimate detriment.

And here are some of the aforementioned jokey tweets, which are perhaps the apex of what Twitter can do for you. “Be careful out there everyone!” is a valid public service announcement, alright.

Morbius supposedly now arrives in theaters on April 1, 2022.