[imagesource: Sony]

Jared Leto is clearly losing some of his shine as a leading man.

Marvel movies are always going to hit big numbers at the box office, but the reviews for Morbius are so bad that there are fears it will affect the bottom line.

As a non-Marvel person who avoids these movies at all costs, I have no skin in the game.

First up, before we get to those reviews, let’s get the basic synopsis via Sony:

Jared Leto transforms into the enigmatic antihero Michael Morbius. Dangerously ill with a rare blood disorder and determined to save others suffering his same fate, Dr. Morbius attempts a desperate gamble.

While at first it seems to be a radical success, a darkness inside him is unleashed. Will good override evil – or will Morbius succumb to his mysterious new urges?

Now for your obligatory trailer:

Great – they also butchered a song by The Doors.

I didn’t have to look very hard to find reviews packed with quality putdowns.

The Guardian’s one-star review called Morbius an insipid Marvel misfire and “an incoherent superhero bore”.

Writing for IndieWire, Kate Erbland said the film is “both blood-less and brain-less”:

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?

…It should come as little surprise then that the film’s scattered action sequences are just as confused, mostly relying on characters falling from tall heights, smashing into things, and unfurling more streaks of powdered color than a gender reveal party…

[The film is] mostly unnecessary, oddly unoriginal, and soon quite forgettable indeed.

Displaying what Vox calls ” a lack of humour and deadly exposition” the film culminates with “perhaps the unintentionally silliest finish I’ve seen this year”:

It dawned on me that there’s probably going to be a sequel, or some tie-in; that this horrendous thing was maybe just really the beginning. Soon enough, we may find ourselves haunted by another trailer.

Whether or not there’s a sequel will be dictated by money.

Morbius opened well enough, taking in $39 million in its first weekend on a $75 million budget, but execs had hoped it would clear the $50 million mark in its first few days.

For one more kick in the nether regions, The Independent labelled it “from top to bottom… a work of shameless corporate desperation”.

Others used phrases like “the worst Marvel film ever” and “a film that is so out-of-time, it feels like a bad parody”.

So far it has a 5,1 rating on IMDb and scored just 17% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics.

[sources:guardian&indiewire&vox&independent]