One of the pandemic’s longest-delayed movies finally comes to theaters in two weeks when Morbius arrives, but the latest installment in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is hardly packing the same levels of buzz as the franchise’s previous entries.
As the first outing in the industry’s other shared Marvel mythology that doesn’t have a British actor named Tom in the lead role, Jared Leto’s debut as the Living Vampire is facing plenty of pressure to succeed for a number of reasons.
The volume of anticipation for the project is hardly deafening, and it could be a significant setback for the studio’s expansion plans if Morbius ends up bombing at the box office, despite the leading man having an excuse ready if that happens.
The footage has attempted to paint the vampiric blockbuster in a different light by playing up supernatural superheroism, which might end up biting it in the ass when Moon Knight is doing pretty much the same thing, and the Disney Plus series has the benefit of huge hype and a two-day head start on Morbius.
Bizarrely enough, though, director Daniel Espinosa revealed during an interview with IGN that he drew visual inspirations from the most unlikely of sources, one that’s as far away from horror as you can possibly imagine.
“I have a daughter who is six years old, and she was really getting into Pokémon. And you know, I’ve watched Pokémon over the years. But I really adore how they use light and colors to express those powers. When you watch Morbius he always has this trail of purple in the comic books and that normally is just lines that are made with a pencil. But I thought maybe if we can take that kind of Pokémon-esque idea and translate that over to the psychedelic experience, I could create a new version of how to express powers.”
A comic book adaptation that stars Jared Leto as a superpowered bloodsucker with shades of Pokémon is one way of marketing Morbius, but we’re not sure it’ll be enough to entice casual audiences unfamiliar with the character.
