'Morbius' is one of the superhero films that are the worst of all time

 

I'm not sure anyone expected Jared Leto's Morbius to be some kind of MCU-level critical hit, but now that the reviews are out for blockbusters, Morbius is truly one of the worst reviewed superhero movies of the modern era. One of, and down there with some of the lowest scores ever.

Morbius has 21% on Rotten Tomatoes, up from the 16% I saw last night, but still miles below most superhero movies to come out in the last decade, save a few. Here's how it stacks up to some really awesome classics:

• Batman v Superman - 29%
• Ghost Rider - 26%
• Green Lantern - 26%
• Suicide Squad (2016) - 26%
• Blade Trinity - 25%
• X-Men: Dark Phoenix - 22%
• Morbius - 21%
• Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance - 18%
• Batman and Robin - 12%
• Jonah Hex - 12%
• Electra - 11%
• Fantastic Four (2015) - 9%
• Catwoman - 9%

So as you can see, it's really rarefied air. Or whatever the opposite of rare air. They're some of the all-time awesome classics, and for the most part, aren't really in "critics hated it, but fans loved it" territory as we see with Venom and its sequels (30% and 58%, respectively). . There's no audience score yet for Morbius, but I'd be surprised if this character and Jared Leto had the same amount of support as Tom Hardy's goofy Venom. Leaks of the film are already baffling a lot of Marvel fans for reasons I won't go into, but it seems like a movie that may end up being universally disliked.

If you're wondering why Sony made the Morbius movie in the first place, and are making a bunch of weird Spider-adjacent movies like Kraven and Madame Webb, it's a twisted rights issue where Sony is essentially getting Spider-Man. The IP has to pump up the movies or Marvel loses the rights. This has resulted in Tom Holland's Spidey and ongoing talks with Marvel and Disney for those films, but Sony needs to run this 'side universe' at the same time. It's a really weird situation and while it sometimes works out quite well (Venom!), Morbius could be a sign of a slate of terrifying movies to come, as long as they don't see these relatively obscure villains working onscreen. Can't figure out any way.

We will see how Morbius performs at the box office, and what the audience has to say about the film. I'd expect a higher score than what reviewers are saying, but Venom's level is high? I would doubt it. We'll find out soon. Between this and his Joker, I'm not sure many people are going to be recruiting Jared Leto for more superhero movie roles anytime soon.