Morbius director finds common ground with critics: "I have a lot of self-hatred"
The summer of Morbius is inexplicably upon us, and director Daniel Espinosa has some explaining to do
Welcome to the summer of Morbius, a joyous time when we all reckon with the fact that Morbius, a movie seemingly nobody wanted or liked, made millions of dollars last weekend.
Morbius has been hammered by critics, making it one of the worst-reviewed Marvel-adjacent films of the modern age. But despite the reviews and another round of reports about Jared Leto’s unconventional acting process, the movie’s financial success assures Sony’s Spider-Man side-character universe will continue. After all, they already have Madame Webb and Kraven The Hunter on deck.
The reaction to Morbius’ success has also been deeply strange online. If you can believe it, the chaos-obsessed, Joker-pilled netizens of Twitter are actually making fun of the movie, ironically calling the film a vibe-shifting triumph, tagging it #MorbiusSweep and #TheSummerOfMobius online. As Ryan Broderick of the Garbage Day newsletter put it:
The summer of Morbius is just another useful way of thinking about our current moment: a fake fan campaign for a movie no one wanted or gives a shit about that somehow made a bunch of money, probably just because people are desperate to do something, anything outside their homes. But beyond this illusion of success and momentum is just, well, nothing.
But despite what you’ve read, some people like Morbius, including the film’s director Daniel Espinosa, who’s on something of a publicity tour defending the movie against critics. Not in the “we made this for the fans” way, but rather a “look, I’m proud of my movie” kind of way. No shade meant there. It’s actually quite refreshing to see a director engage with criticism on this scale.