Film Review - Morbius (2022)

 Morbius is the new Columbia/Tristar/Marvel production and this time Jared Leto plays Dr Michael Morbius a great scientist who was born with a blood based disease that sees him needing crutches to walk everywhere and nearing death at every turn but on a trip to Costa Rica he thinks that Bats and Bat Blood may hold the key to finding a cure for his disease but this trip to find a cure may make such a cure worse than the disease.

 

Morbius is sadly not a good film and after a quarter of 2022 having mostly pretty good films for the most part this is the first genuine dud I feel like I’ve seen so far this year and for once Leto is not to blame here he delivers a fine enough performance but the problems here are much bigger.

 

Firstly this film is badly lit from a photography point of view, Oliver Wood is the DP here and he seems along with Daniel Espinosa the director seem to have gone to the Zack Snyder school of lighting where the light switch is an alien invention and so many of the films scenes are shot in this borderline darkness or lit by distant neon lights of the city streets and it looks terrible and at some points I kept thinking to myself “TURN THE LIGHT ON!!!” as I got sick of seeing the near constant darkness and low lighting, its not moody its awful.

 

Secondly the action scenes are terrible, so much of them are this misty, smoky CG that is hard to follow with your eye and shot so quickly and edited from one moment to the next in similar speed that you cannot tell who is who and what is happening and where everything is going on and again its terrible to watch and also for a character that is said to be a Vampire there is very little blood here and this leads me to a greater point.

 

Marvel (and I will include Marvel Studios in this) needs to realise as Warner Brothers and DC have done that some of their characters cannot be properly put on film within the confines of an M rating some of their characters are inherently MA15+ rated characters be it Morbius or Blade or Deadpool or Wolverine or Black Widow to name as examples and they need to tailor their films to this realisation when it comes and this has firstly got me thinking all the more about what a missed opportunity Black Widow was for Marvel to test those waters without taking much of a risk with a new character in doing so but alas we got what we got and here we are.

 

Also I have found myself appreciating Tom Hardy’s work as Venom/Eddie Brock so much more now after seeing this movie and hey the Venom films aren’t the best of Comic Book films but Hardy’s work as Venom/Eddie is still enormously fun and very funny and this comes from Hardy committing himself 115% to those characters and their symbiotic dynamic and Let There Be Carnage released last year was fine as a film but Hardy was still very funny in his role and I still look forward to more of him in his role unlike Leto and Morbius who I would be happy to never see in another film again after this one.

 

But there is one bright spot here and that is Matt Smith from Dr Who, he goes for a fun Hammer Horror type of performance and it is the one bright spot in this movie because at the very least someone here is having fun and enjoying themselves plus Smith is building on his new Posh Slimeball persona that he started last year in Last Night in Soho even though some of his makeup work looked like Frank Langella’s Skeletor from Masters of the Universe also Jared Harris in this movie but he feels wasted in his small role.

 

And so that was Morbius and look its not awful but its so dull to watch and fans of these films deserve better but at least for once Leto isn’t the problem here though he doesn’t help matters either, 1.5 out of 5.

Film Review - The Duke (2022)

The Duke is directed by the late Roger Michell and stars Jim Broadbent as Kempton Bunton an old age pensioner in Newcastle, England in 1961 who is actively campaigning for free TV licenses for pensioners and war widows feeling it to be unjust to be paying for the BBC and then needing a licence to have a television to watch it so he decided to steal the portrait of the Duke of Wellington now on display in London but keeping it from his wife (Helen Mirren) will not be easy.

 

The Duke is a really good time at the movies and it was one that I enjoyed watching quite a bit and a lot of that comes down to Jim Broadbent firstly, he continues to be a loveable and affable screen presence and the moral conviction he displays in this role gets you on his side almost right away whether it be standing up for others, fighting for free TV licenses or making people laugh in the court.

 

Secondly I found myself very interested in the overall storytelling being told here now in Australia we haven’t had TV Licenses here for a very long time (the NFSA has done a great story on this here: https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/radio-and-tv-licences) and I didn’t even know the UK had had them and still do to this day despite TV being as much a hub for gaming and streaming as it is for overall channel watching so to see a story like this being told in a fun way by Michell was quite good and there are also some fun references to 60s movies in some of the editing.

 

Also the film has a good cast outside of Broadbent and Mirren, Fionn Whitehead from Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk is very good as their son as is Matthew Goode as Kempton’s lawyer in court and I also enjoyed Jack Bandeira as the Bunton’s older son Kenny.

 

And so that was the Duke and sadly this would be Roger Michell’s final film before his passing last year but he left behind a worthy finale to his career with this film and its well worth a watch if you get the chance, 4 out of 5.

 

Film Review - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is the sequel to the surprisingly fun 2020 film based off of the long running and hit and miss video game series and this time Sonic (Ben Schwartz) is keen to prove his worth to his new home world of Earth much to the disappointment of his sheriff father (James Marsden) but his old foe Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) has found his way back to Earth and this time with a new ally Knuckles (Idris Elba) but Sonic may soon have a new ally of his own in the form of Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) as both parties seek to find the lost Master Emerald which can wield great power but also be a deadly weapon in the wrong hands.

 

I was very keen for this Sonic sequel as I was very surprisingly taken by the 2020 film (one of the last to be released before the dark times, before the Coronavirus pandemic) it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be and in large part that was due to Schwartz and Carrey performing their roles to great effect and this time Idris Elba was in the cast as Knuckles and it gave me hope that this sequel could deliver the goods and we would have a new quality family film franchise after the Paddington and Despicable Me films.

 

And boy does this sequel deliver the goods but while I don’t think its better than the first film I do think it is as good and this time the filmmakers know what it is they have, a likeable hero in Sonic and a great fun villain in Robotnik and both Schwartz and Carrey again step up to the plate and deliver good performances in their roles though Carrey I felt took a little bit more of a backseat this time and I think the film suffers a little bit because of that.

 

But instead we get Tails and Knuckles as the new main characters and they do not disappoint, Tails and Sonic have a very good chemistry together and make for a likeable pair of heroes as they hunt down the Master Emerald but like all good heroes they need great villains to lift them up and both Carrey and Elba make for a great pair of those and while their storyline feels a little predictable Elba makes for a great Knuckles and his fight scenes with Sonic are a delight and it made me hopeful somewhat for a proper live action Dragon Ball movie one day.

 

As for the fight scenes well this has to be the best third act I’ve seen in a movie like this in a long time as the film wisely saves a big chunk of its action beats for this part of the film and it really delivers the goods and makes great use of the characters good and bad plus there are a couple of big references that long time fans will love.

 

But aside from the back seating of Robotnik the film is also a little too long, it runs only a minute or two over 2 hours and that length is felt especially during a middle section of the film in Hawaii that for me really ground the film to a halt for a comedy segment that felt very out of place and made some kids in my session a little restless but the rest of the film more than makes up for this I feel.

 

And so that was Sonic 2 and this is one sequel that does not disappointment and establishes this franchise as a quality one for family audiences as well as big kid hearted adults I sincerely hope Paramount keeps this same team around for one last run that brings in Shadow and Metal Sonic as that would make a fantastic trilogy of films, 4 out of 5.