Sony and Marvel – it’s a tale as old as time. At this point, Sony’s reputation when it makes movies in collaboration with Marvel is clear. They are utterly incapable. Any character that is unfortunate enough to have a Sony-Marvel movie made in their name is destined to have their reputation utterly smashed.  

The main Sony-Marvel production that highlights these failures is Morbius (Espinosa, 2022). Currently, the Sony-Marvel universe consists of the Venom trilogy (2018-2024), Morbius, Madame Web (Clarkson, 2024) and Kraven the Hunter (Chandor, 2024). The Venom trilogy has been generally well-received. It reached a climax with Venom: The Last Dance (Marcel, 2024) – the definition of a 5 out of 10 movie. We either love the Venom films, or we’re stunningly bored. Morbius, as the first non-Venom Sony-Marvel production in this cinematic universe, should have been innovative and refreshing. So many of us will remember Morbius releasing like our ancestors remembered the Somme. Tales of reshoots, going drastically over-budget, being strained behind the scenes, creative differences and rushing, rushing, rushing are all commonplace.  

Morbius had such a jumbled and destructive development that it is used as a case study on how not to create a film. Members of the crew and assistant director described working on this project as the least fun they have ever had in the industry. So, the development of Morbius was deplorable, but that’s often the case with superhero ‘slop’ movies in the modern age. A final product that can win fans over is often enough to make everybody forget about the chaos that caused it to exist – but such is not the case.  

Ultimately, Morbius watches terribly! It attempted to link itself with pre-existing continuity by showing Michael Keaton’s Vulture in a post-credit scene – a drastically reduced role that featured in the trailer but was evidently cut down massively. Keaton had appeared previously in Spider-Man: Homecoming (Watts, 2017) and had been dormant for half a decade at the time. There’s only one problem – the post-credit scene, the only scene linking Morbius to another entity, is scripted like it was scribbled in crayon five minutes before it was spoken. Keaton’s Vulture has travelled universes, moving from the MCU to the Sony-Marvel Universe. No reaction at all. They attempt to set up a Sinister Six villain ensemble with the cringe-worthy lines; “I’m not sure how I got here. Something to do with Spider-Man, I think. I’m still figuring this place out, but I feel like a bunch of guys like us should team up.” Yeesh. Needless to say, no Sinister Six has ever happened. Morbius will likely never appear on screen again, and just to round it off, it’s dragged Vulture down with it. In fairness, Morbius does have a few things going for it. It’s so bad, it’s good. It’s so unfunny; it comes full circle. It’s a guilty pleasure and has the advantage of being easy to take the mick out of. None of this applies to the horrors of Sony’s own Madame Web (2024).