So where did it all go wrong? Well, the answer could potentially surprise you. Morbius wasn't actually written and produced as a failure, no movie is (with very few exceptions that is). Morbius' script was the brainchild of Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (whose name speaks for itself). Their intention was to bring a beloved comic book anti-hero to the big screen. On paper, it makes sense. That's the problem.

Sometimes you need to take risks to make things memorable. It's the same reason why a boring melody doesn't stick in your head. Morbius seemed like a safe play by Sony Pictures. The actual history between Sony and its superhero cinematic universe is oddly complicated, so perhaps taking a fan favorite who's never really been in the spotlight and giving him his own chance at stardom could've been the break they needed. So who did they get to play the iconic antihero? None other than Jared Leto.

Jared Leto is certainly an actor. He's had moments where he's almost proved his worth, with films like The Dallas Buyers Club and such. Sadly, he's also made the rest of the world despise him with his abysmally bad portrayal of the Joker in Suicide Squad (2016). Heath Ledger shocked cinemas with his extraordinary rendition, and to follow him up they got a Machine Gun Kelly-core knockoff. So after his horrible debut in the DC cinematic universe, Sony saw fit to cast him as the newest anti-hero in Morbius. It being Jared Leto, his performance didn't stop with the name Michael Morbius.

Jared Leto made the production crews' lives a living nightmare. He constantly 'method acted' for irrelevant parts of the script like pretending to be crippled off set. This added approximately an hour in downtime during filming everyday because of how long it took him to get to the bathroom in crutches. This combined with other scheduling conflicts, budgeting issues, and covid interferences led to the film arriving in cinemas in the state that it did.

Now that we know where Morbius went awry in its production and release, what made it special enough to have a full-length article written about it? Well, Morbius was a depressingly bad / average movie with nothing much more to it. What made it unique was the internet following the film gained afterwards. Because of how uninteresting the film was, a lot of people left raving 5 star reviews pretending to have seen it. Unless you lived under a rock for the whole of 2022, you've probably heard the phrase, "It's Morbin' Time." This line showed up in almost every Morbius review, and as of now, is probably the most associated quote with the movie. What makes this line great is, Morbius never once said it throughout the film. To the common public though, this line and stigma around the movie became so strong, even Jared Leto and Sony Pictures embraced the meme. Following its first failed box office release, Sony re-released Morbius with the film's meme status at its peak. To no one's surprise however, the film tanked yet again at the box office. Its total worldwide gross wound up at $163,865,530, which was far less than the expectations held for standard sony superhero films. Despite all the buzz, the lackluster film never once delivered at the box office.

Of course, through all the failure lots of Sony executives probably felt, I surely enjoyed the Morbius memes for what they were. Considering this was supposed to be a review, I might as well share my thoughts on the Morbsterpeice... It was incredible, probably a morbillion out of a 10 if I do say so myself. I especially enjoyed the part where Morbius lost his cripple powers and morbed out of the building. There wasn't a moment of downtime in the development of the plot. Everyone at the screening was at the edge of their seats. When Morbius told Milo that it was Morbin' time, me--as well as the rest of the theater--were lost to a frenzy of cheering and applause. It was truly incredible. Would recommend.