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REWRITING MORBIUS 🧛♂️:
🕑 Added 2022-04-18 17:06:05 +0000 UTCHey everyone! Considering how busy my schedule is, I figured that I could start posting quick responses here regarding movies that I would like to rewrite but unfortunately don't have the time to make a full video on. I just saw Morbius this weekend and I was disappointed by how much potential the film had that was never fully realized. There was a stellar cast hired for this film, but between the writing, directing, and editing, this film gave those amazing actors the bare minimum to work with and it didn't do their talent justice. So take a look at a few of my notes on how I would rewrite Morbius to help it reach its full potential! 🦇
My Diagnosis:
This movie’s biggest flaw is its slow and uneven pacing. The pacing of your story can either make or break your film, and for this film it definitely broke it. There are other screenwriting weaknesses in there as well such as the lack of controlling idea/main theme and the lack of a character arc for Morbius, therefore leaving Morbius an unsympathetic character with the audience caring little to none for the character and his goal. Not to mention, since there is no moral message to be learned or theme to be imparted to the audience, the audience just sits there wondering what was the point of the 2-hour movie they just watched?
Funny enough, I noticed that this film followed the same plot archetype from the 2010 Wolfman reboot known as “Was Once A Man”, or as I like to call it, “Man Becomes Monster” plot. What’s even more ironic is that Morbius suffers from the same exact flaws as Wolfman; the god-awful pacing, great character designs but a lack of character development, the lack of chemistry between the characters therefore leaving this movie devoid of any heart, and the absence of common sense amongst the characters. This movie literally makes no sense and just ignores logic during certain scenes like how is Michael able to walk into a coffee shop and just hang out without anyone recognizing him and turning him in? The dude is literally on the front page of the Daily Bugle MULTIPLE times throughout the movie! Everyone should know his face. It’s also irritating to see Sony on multiple occasions force bloody and violent characters who are meant to flourish in a Rated R environment being subjected to a PG-13 rating where their violent nature – which is a defining character trait – is completely nerfed. Sony...please stop trying to make your supervillains PG-13 anti-heroes...it doesn’t work. It’s just like trying to make Deadpool PG-13. It won’t work. Audiences don’t want to see that. Now I’m not saying Morbius can’t be any PG-13 movies at all, like if he were to crossover into an Amazing Spider-Man film, you obviously want to keep that film PG-13, but for Morbius’ solo film – like Carnage in Venom 2 – it just makes more sense to let the character be themselves and embrace the R Rating.
Now I don’t know a lot about the crew behind the Morbius film so I’m not sure how much of the film’s low quality can be accredited to the crew themselves or to studio interference. Because Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless were credited as the writers for this film, and they’ve worked on films such as 2017’s Power Rangers, Gods of Egypt, and Vin Diesel’s the Last Witch Hunter. Meanwhile, director Daniel Espinosa has directed 2012’s Safe House, 2015’s Child 44, and 2017’s Life. So, it’s totally up for debate whether or not these three are to blame for Morbius being such a weak film. But the one name that really sticks out to me the most and is a surefire guarantee to be the biggest reason why Morbius tanked is the name of one of Morbius’producers – Avi Arad. If you guys don’t know who he is, HiTop Films has made a few video essays regarding Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 and how Avi Arad’s involvement really interfered with Raimi’s vision for the film and ultimately created such a negative experience for Raimi that when he started working on Spider-Man 4, and he saw history begin to repeat itself with Sony executives trying to change his vision for the film again, he ended up just quitting altogether. Avi Arad doesn’t even have a background in film prior to his involvement in the Spider-Man films. His background was in toy sales. He’s essentially a salesman. Not an artist. A good producer is someone who knows how to sell art without damaging the original artist’s creation. They know how to balance good business practices with artistic integrity. But most studio executives don’t understand this balance. They only understand the business side of it and totally neglect the art side. Why studios continue to put people who are not storytellers in charge of telling stories is beyond me but that’s the world we live in, and that’s why I believe Avi Arad’s attachment to Morbius is a contribution to its weaknesses. Now, I could be 100% wrong on all of that. I don’t know any of this for sure. But these are just educated guesses that I have based on my own personal background in film, my understanding of the film industry, and how these individuals have behaved in the past with similar projects.
Also...why does Milo run like that? If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know what I’m talking about LOL. And while the fully CG face for Morbius in his vampire form looks amazing, the fact that Jared Leto really advocated against makeup FX is concerning because anyone who understands VFX well will tell you that the best VFX are the ones where practical and digital FX are combined. Just take a look at Corridor Crew’s YouTube channel if you want to hear that straight from the horse’s mouth regarding the best CGI practices. So, in the case of Milo’s CGI vampire face, you can totally tell where the filmmakers would’ve benefited from using a combination of both makeup FX and CGI to create his vampire face. Because the Uncanny Valley was way too strong in those scenes. It looked way too fake.
My Treatment:
Morbius as a character make so much more sense as a tragic anti-villain than as a hero or even anti-hero. I can just imagine how much more compelling Morbius would be as if he was one of the main characters in an Amazing Spider-Man movie. I’m imagining a scenario where the opening scenes with Morbius remain the same as they are in the original film, but now in the present day Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man is tracking down a brutal murderer whose victims are drained of all of their blood and it leads him to Morbius, who is devastated by what he has become and is desperately trying to get control of himself but remains unsure as to whether or not he killed those victims. I like the idea of there being a cat and mouse dynamic between Spider-Man and Morbius as the audience is constantly questioning Morbius’ intentions and wondering whether he can be trusted or not. As the movie goes on, more and more pieces of the mystery surrounding Morbius and the murders are revealed. Morbius will be blamed for all of the murders but as we find out later on, he is actually being framed by Milo. After learning the backstory behind Morbius and Milo’s origins, Spider-Man will realize that Morbius has been hunting down his best friend Milo (the true murderer) and trying to cure both of them of their vampirism. Morbius had been innocent all along. You could even have it to where Spider-Man serves as the Decoy Protagonist to Morbius, where the audience at first believes Spider-Man to be the main protagonist when in fact he is the Decoy and Morbius is the true protagonist of the story. Spider-Man will then use his biological book smarts to help Morbius and collaborate with him in Horizon Labs to formulate a cure for his vampirism. To help emphasize how tragic of a character Morbius is, we can still have his mentor Dr. Nichols and his love interest Martin be killed by Milo in their quest to find a cure. But now, Morbius just wants to avenge his loved ones. He’s tired of holding back. He wants Milo’s blood. He wants to go full Dracula on his enemies. Maybe towards the end, Spider-Man and Morbius will team up to stop Milo, but Morbius is so consumed with rage and bloodlust that Spider-Man can’t hold him back and so the final fight ends up becoming a three-way battle between Spider-Man and the two vampires who are all trying to defeat each other. But Spider-Man is unable to stop Morbius from slaying Milo, and the Living Vampire informs Spider-Man that he doesn’t have a reason to keep on living now that everyone he loves is gone. What’s the point of finding a cure? Morbius is cursed for life, and he knows that Spider-Man won’t kill him, so now there’s only one road left open to Morbius. Embrace his nature and become a hunter. Morbius professes that he will become a vigilante that only drinks the blood of evil men. But Spider-Man insists that Morbius needs to turn himself in, and if he won’t, Spider-Man will. This culminates in a quick scuffle between Morbius and Spider-Man where the Living Vampire comes out on top. Morbius promises the weakened and defeated Spider-Man that he will keep his word and refrain from drinking innocent blood, but warns the Web Slinger to stay out of his way. Morbius escapes into the night, and I know this take on the character fits more in line with An Amazing Spider-Man film than it does as a Morbius film, but that’s kind of the point. Morbius is a Spider-Man villain, and he works best when he has a foil to clash and collide with like the moralistic wall-crawler. This is just one idea on how I would execute this film.
Not to mention, this route with Morbius would help set up a Midnight Sons film, which I think is a better team crossover film for Sony Marvel to build towards to instead of Sinister Six. The team could be made up of a bunch of different characters like Venom, Blade, Morbius, Werewolf by Night, Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, Dr. Strange and even Spider-Man himself, just to name a few candidates. It also begs the question as to why Sony is so insistent and so stubborn on fighting a losing battle in trying to build their own Marvel Cinematic Universe when we all know they don’t stand a chance against Disney. It’s a lot of effort put towards a losing cause, and it’s not even justified because their most recent Marvel movies aren’t even good. So, what’s the point? To spite Kevin Fiege?
