I have not been high on the Morbius train, as this pandemic-delayed Spider-Man spin-off finally wends its way to theaters in January 2022. But a new trailer is the best of the bunch by a huge margin, and maybe Morbius doesn’t look terrible? They’re still throwing everything and the kitchen sink into the marketing to remind everyone that Morbius is a Marvel thing, which means giving away pretty much all the fun stuff right off the top, like multiple references to Venom and Spider-Man, including a new shot of Oscorp tower in the New York skyline. It’s a bit sweaty and desperate, and a little bothersome because maybe Morbius doesn’t actually need the boost? I can’t get over the fact that I…like…this trailer.
Besides the fact that the vampire effect on Jared Leto’s face just looks plain cool—this is not a character that would have realized well on screen before our current age of CG whizbangs—and ignoring the slowed-down The Doors cover, I really like how Morbius looks and moves, and the visualization of his flight is neat. Director Daniel Espinosa previously made Life, which is a solid dumb-fun space thriller that also looks great. Espinosa has a knack for sci-fi that is really working in this trailer. And Jared Leto kind of wins me over with that line at the end, “I’m just kidding, it’s Doctor Michael Morbius, at your service.” That’s a good joke! And he delivers it well! I don’t care about the Marvel teases—although the potential for Morbius to get dragged into the MCU and team up with Doctor Strange for a Midnight Sons thing is intriguing—as long as this movie, in and of itself, looks promising. And Morbius actually does look promising. I know! I can’t believe it, either!
Attached - Jared Leto on the Gucci runway in LA last night.
