Morbius (2022)

Morbius stands as a curious artifact of contemporary superhero filmmaking, a project so determinedly uninterested in the cultural preoccupations of its era that it achieves a kind of inadvertent innocence. The film concerns itself with the mechanics of its plot, the tortured moral ambiguity of its protagonist, and the execution of action sequences. These are legitimate pursuits, and yet the film's refusal to engage with any broader social consciousness reads almost as a deliberate act of abstention. The supporting cast includes performers of color, but they exist as functional elements within a narrative that has no particular interest in their cultural specificity or lived experience. Jared Leto's Morbius suffers from a rare blood disorder, but the film treats this condition not as an occasion for examining disability or bodily difference, but rather as a plot device to be overcome through scientific intervention. The tone throughout oscillates between gothic thriller and action spectacle without landing firmly in either, a tonal uncertainty that extends to its complete absence of contemporary political consciousness. What emerges is a film content to operate within the conventions of mid-budget superhero entertainment, asking nothing of its audience beyond the acceptance of its internal logic. In this sense, Morbius is almost refreshingly uncomplicated, a movie that seems to have missed the memo that cinema in the 2020s was supposed to be thinking about something.