Film: Morbius

The final film on my list, and only showing locally in the afternoon in Ennis, Morbius is another of those superhero things - an antihero, rather. Jared Leto is the hapless biochemist who accidentally turns himself into a vampire - with all the powers that entails. Also stars Michael Keaton. And I went yesterday.

Weather's turned cold in Ireland, and a bitter wind drove into me all the way to the cinema. I was so glad to get inside.. in Screen 4 (a different one from the last two times I was here), the only other occupants were a couple of lads. Curiously, I'd been given (without asking) a ticket for seat C6 - which didn't seem to exist! I found Row C - but on one side are just the seats 1 - 5, and in Row C, the other side starts at 7! Unlike the rows behind and in front of it. So I sat in C7, as a reasonable compromise.

Well then. The SFX are excellent in this, I thought - kind of like The Matrix, with vampires. The vampires' movements in this are followed by a kind of trail, like the vapour trail left by aeroplanes - for originality, and also so we can follow their movements, which are in general too swift to be detectable by the human eye. As to their characteristics, I found them closest to the vampires in True Blood - which came after this character was originally conceived. So, did True Blood get its rules of play from Morbius? I wonder. Now, I'm not a Marvel fan in general, so I missed any and all Spiderman references - but I believe that Morbius originated as a villain there. In which case, you could see this film as his backstory, and the rehabilitation of his image!

Apart from the sheer pleasure of watching excellent SFX, and the thrill of not knowing where the vampires are going to pop up next, it's a delight to watch Jared Leto, who is very pleasant on the eye. Never really noticed him before - I will make the effort from now on. And.. that's kind of it. So, I did enjoy the film, but won't be rushing to see any sequels. And yes, you just know there are going to be sequels - I spent the whole film wondering where Michael Keaton was, only to have him show up practically at the very end, having suddenly appeared, apparently as surprising to him as to any of us. His character was not explained - but when I Googled him, I discovered that yes, he's another Marvel character! Adrian Toomes, to be specific. And so, that'd be lining up the sequel right there - that's one I think I'll skip!

Ran too late last night to blog - I had to be up this morning to greet the Tesco deliveryman. And now, that's all that's on in the afternoons, so I'll be taking it pretty easy for the next few days. Well, my friend got back to me - they're away in the middle of the week, back on Thursday, so the most sensible thing to do seemed to be to visit on Friday, which I've now arranged with her. Happily, my boss was also fine with me taking the week as holiday. Anyway, I'll fly back to London on Sunday. And on Monday, I'm off to The Corn is Green, at the National.