MORBIUS Director Daniel Espinosa Responds To The Movie's 17% Score On Rotten Tomatoes

Morbius has received negative reviews from critics, with a lowly 17% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Now, director Daniel Espinosa has shared his reaction, but unsurprisingly chooses his words carefully!

By JoshWilding - Apr 04, 2022 01:04 PM EST

Filed Under: Morbius

Morbius currently sits at 17% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of the worst-reviewed comic book movies of all time. With a 70% Audience Score, there appears to be some disconnect between moviegoers and critics, though many fans appear to be disappointed with the Living Vampire's big screen debut.

All of Sony Pictures' non-Marvel Studios produced Marvel movies have received the dreaded green splat on Rotten Tomatoes, but that hasn't stopped the Venom franchise from finding box office success! In the case of Morbius, however, its opening weekend has proved to be similarly disappointing.

Insider recently spoke to director Daniel Espinosa and asked whether he pays any attention to what critics are saying, mentioning that his movie currently has a lowly 17% score.

"When I did my first feature it was a small movie called 'Babylon Disease,'" he began. "I remember one day going home on the subway and I had a few drinks so I was a bit drunk. Someone nudged me on the train and said, 'I have to tell you what's wrong with the second scene in your feature' and I was like, 'Well, okay.' The point I'm making is it's a strange thing to make something so public."

"Look, I have a lot of self-hatred so I have a lot of criticism of my own work," Espinosa continued, seemingly referring specifically to Morbius. "I'm always trying to focus on being better. But I am also proud of what I do. There are parts in all of my movies that I'm really proud of."

We wouldn't be surprised if the filmmaker was a little more open about his experience down the line, as it's clear this movie went through a lot of changes. Tonnes of scenes from the trailers are missing, many of which suggest that Morbius was once a very diffrent film to the one we all saw. Espinosa appears to be supportive of the movie, so there's a chance he is happy with the finished product.

What did you think about Morbius?

Click on the "Next" button below for a recap of
scenes in the Morbius trailers missing from the movie!

8. Everything And Anything Involving Adrian Toomes

MORBIUS-Teaser-Trailer-HD-2-42-screenshot

Michael Keaton's Adrian Toomes appears in all three trailers, and it's only in the final one that we actually get a scene from the movie itself (and even then, the dialogue is totally different).

Piecing these together, it seems Michael Morbius was, at some point, going to be transported in the back of a police van before bumping into Toomes. They seem to have already met by then, and we can't help but wonder if a couple of different moments have been spliced together to look like one here. Regardless, The Vulture seems keen for the Living Vampire to stay in touch with him.

We can only assume an earlier version of Morbius saw Spider-Man's world combined with the Venomverse, meaning Toomes had been imprisoned there all this time (some sort of retcon would have no doubt cut any MCU ties). The fact that No Way Home changed things probably explains why the only surviving scene is Adrian being led out of jail by the cops, though it's clearly been altered.

7. Michael Morbius Goes Missing

MORBIUS-Official-Trailer-HD-1-9-screenshot

In Morbius, Michael rents out a cargo ship and some mercenaries so that he and Martine Bancroft can conduct their experiments on him in international waters. After being transformed into a Living Vampire, he tears through the place and makes short work of those rather unlikeable goons. With that, he radios for help, leaves Martine to be rescued, and jumps overboard to, uh, swim home.

The authorities eventually come to the conclusion that Michael must have been there, but it seems there was once a different plan. In this exchange between the good doctor and Tyrese Gibson's FBI Agent Stroud, we learn the scientist has been missing for two months and wasn't seen again until the aforementioned cargo ship washed ashore on Long Island. That's a pretty massive change.

Clearly, Morbius' origin story played out quite differently in an earlier version of the movie, and this could explain why the scene at the beginning with the vampire bats feels so completely out of place.

6. Oscorp

MORBIUS-Official-Trailer-HD-1-41-screenshot

It's clear from the post-credits scenes that sweeping changes were made in the wake of Spider-Man: No Way Home's release, and we can't help but think Sony Pictures once planned for this movie to be the first we'd see of Tom Holland's web-slinger in their version of the Marvel Universe.

That's a more frightening thought than being on the receiving end of Morbius' fangs, but we also have a sneaky suspicion that they'd use the Multiverse to create a world that borrowed elements from all three Spider-Man franchises. In this shot, we see The Amazing Spider-Man's Oscorp - a location that definitely wasn't in this movie - leaving us with a long list of questions for the studio.

The only world these Marvel movies would arguably work in is the Amazing one, but perhaps this was just thrown in to mislead us all prior to No Way Home's debut in theaters? We also can't discount the possibility that Morbius worked for Oscorp before it was changed to Horizon Labs.

5. Tyrese's Robo-Arm

MORBIUS-Teaser-Trailer-HD-2-11-screenshot

We'll talk more about this sequence a little later, but it wasn't in the movie...and neither was Stroud's robotic arm. For nearly all his scenes, Tyrese keeps his hand in his pocket, and it's not until the very end of Morbius that we see his cybernetic enhancements (which we're pretty sure weren't quite as in your face as the screenshot above). Even then, it's only in passing and doesn't actually tease anything.

In one shot in Martine's lab, there is a cybernetic arm on display, so common sense says this might have once been a major subplot in the movie. As it stands, though, Stroud is just a generic FBI agent and Tyrese isn't given any of the superhero action he previously teased in interviews.

Morbius doesn't exactly have a massive runtime (it's only a few minutes longer than Venom: Let There Be Carnage), but maybe something just didn't work with Tyrese's performance? He's always been a fun presence in the Fast & Furious movies, and nothing we did see was by any means bad.

4. Conversation Between Friends

MORBIUS-Teaser-Trailer-HD-0-20-screenshot

This exchange between Dr. Michael Morbius and Dr. Emil Nicholas was featured in all three trailers, but doesn't make it into the movie itself. It appears the Living Vampire's father figure was looking to point him in the right direction here, likely serving as more of a mentor to the Nobel Prize winner.

While Nicholas still plays a key role in Morbius, it's primarily in Milo's life as he attempts to steer him in the right direction, ultimately losing his life at that vampire's hands.

There is a key moment between Michael and Emil here, though it does feel a lot like Sony at some point shifted the focus of the movie to concentrate more on the latter's dynamic with Milo. Perhaps they hoped to make Matt Smith's villain a more well-balanced character? It didn't really work as he was one of the worst parts of the film, and it was baffling to see Milo prioritised over Morbius.

3. Action Scene In The Woods

MORBIUS-Final-Trailer-HD-1-37-screenshot

Between this, the shot of Stroud, and police cars racing through a park, it definitely seems as if a huge set piece in the woods was once going to feature in Morbius. We don't see enough to come to any sort of real conclusion about what that looked like, but it's odd to see something this major scrapped.

If we're going to throw out a theory, it would be that this is where the Living Vampire ended up battling the FBI (and Stroud, in particular) with Martine attempting to step in and save Michael.

Whether this was the movie's original ending is up for debate, and it's certainly feasible that the CG-heavy final battle with Milo was a product of reshoots. It's possible this will end up in Morbius' deleted scenes, as a lot of content was clearly shot for a sequence that's ended up on the cutting room floor.

2. Bitten By A Vampire?

MORBIUS-Official-Trailer-HD-2-25-screenshot

Throughout Morbius, Stroud can be seen with a nasty scar on his neck that's never explained. Did he have a run-in with one of the movie's vampires that we never got to see? It's a possibility, but as the FBI agent tells Michael he's a hero here, it becomes clear they once had a very different dynamic.

What we saw was a relatively simple story of Stroud suspecting Morbius might be the killer they're looking for before doggedly pursuing him. This scene suggests that he was actually among those encouraging Michael to be a hero rather than a villain, a plot thread that was M.I.A from the final cut.

Prior to Morbius' release, Tyrese seemed extremely enthusiastic about joining the Marvel Universe and even suggested he would be in the MCU. The fact that he didn't do a single interview to promote its release tells us something went wrong. and most of his scenes ended up being completely scrapped.

1. Spider-Man

MORBIUS-Teaser-Trailer-HD-2-10-screenshot

While a version of this scene does exist in Morbius, there's no sign of the graffiti labelling Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man a killer. It was always strange to see this screenshot from the Spider-Man video game in the trailers and appears to be another remnant of Sony's plans to bring Tom Holland's web-slinger into this world (presumably after their relationship with Marvel Studios fell apart).

Was Holland going to replace Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man in that world, all while wearing Tobey's costume? We wouldn't put anything past Sony, but there's every chance this was just a placeholder.

Either way, it's massively misleading for the studio to have marketed Morbius with a Spider-Man tease like this, only for the wall-crawler to be a complete non-factor in the movie. We're pleased he wasn't in many ways, but can't help but wonder what the real story is behind this scrapped "cameo."

MORBIUS Star Tyrese Shares Disappointment With Reduced Role And Confirms Major Fight Scenes Were Cut

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58 Comments

1 2

TheManWithoutFear - 4/4/2022, 1:07 PM

Haven't seen Morbius, but this is a pretty endearing response.

The1st - 4/4/2022, 3:58 PM

@TheManWithoutFear - Yeah, he has the right attitude for sure. I'm glad it wasn't something akin to this:

dragon316 - 4/4/2022, 4:20 PM

@TheManWithoutFear - if you like vampire movies it’s good but to character in comics no I’m no fan of morbious I like it as vampire movie nothing else

Goldboink - 4/4/2022, 6:27 PM

@TheManWithoutFear -
"This was a great paycheck and a chance to work with a lot of great people. I knew the score going in but all things considered we did the best we could. I was hoping for better but to tell you the truth as long as I don't come out of this looking like Josh Trank I'm cool with it."

Superspecialawesomeguy - 4/4/2022, 1:09 PM

"I'm always trying to focus on being better. But I am also proud of what I do. There are parts in all of my movies that I'm really proud of."

That's a good mentality tbf.

AmazingFILMporg - 4/4/2022, 1:12 PM

*I'm always trying to focus on being better. But I am also proud of what I do. There are parts in all of my movies that I'm really proud of."*

That's kinda sweet🥲

We all trying to grow for the better💪

Salute❤️

slickrickdesigns - 4/4/2022, 1:13 PM

When it comes to Sony’s failures I usually blame the money hungry execs and I get it that this is all a business and people making these films are out to make money but I’m not a fan of grifters who try selling you a product by an enticing description but end up producing a POS and still tell you it’s good.

ModHaterSLADE - 4/4/2022, 1:14 PM

I mean if a director doesn't have at least some confidence in their film I wouldn't wanna see it.

MrKeyzerSoze - 4/4/2022, 1:14 PM

The correct response would be to cancel the whole SPUMC universe

GhostDog - 4/4/2022, 1:16 PM

You can't hate this response one bit. Sony probably [frick]ed this up mostly anyway. Dude is a solid director, see Safe House.

TheWalkingCuban - 4/4/2022, 2:13 PM

@BlackBeltJones - and he never threw Sony out there. Hate when they do that. This response just put more butts in 💺 💺

ShimmyShimmyYA - 4/4/2022, 1:16 PM

I feel bad for this guy. Probably felt like this was his in to being a big filmmaker and Sony just forcing this bullshit franchise (doesn’t absolve the director 100% but we know how studios are at times)

SonOfAGif - 4/4/2022, 1:17 PM

Part of the problem with these types of films is not understanding the source material. The second part falls with the casting. The final part falls on studio interference. Sony is notorious for all three problems their Spider-Man films suffer from. Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Venom, Venom Let there be Carnage, and now Morbius. They don't get the source material and inject their studio interference every step of the way.

TheWinkler - 4/4/2022, 1:26 PM

@SonOfAGif -

"I don't know how we got here...something to do with Spider-Man"

-Sony Execs, trying to figure out which Spidey villain needs their own feature film

GameOn - 4/4/2022, 1:18 PM

I like his mentality. I haven’t seen any of his work but I hope he continues to improve and garners praise. I can see why it would suck to make a movie and for the entire internet to shit all over it as if you didn’t put a ton of time and effort in. It’s never meant personally but it would be hard not to take it that way.

MrKeyzerSoze - 4/4/2022, 1:21 PM

Seems like after his first movie, he went downhill from there

Nonetheless, there's a huge gap between the critic score and audience score for Morbius

Superheromoviefan - 4/4/2022, 1:25 PM

the movie was just ok, but at least it was better than those venom trash movies

Goldboink - 4/4/2022, 6:36 PM

@Superheromoviefan -
Venom made $850 Mil and was 30% on Rotten Tomatoes. I haven't seen it and ain't interested but yea, hard to argue with the box office. As long as they get away with making big bux on crappy movies they will continue with the same approach. Don't burden people with story and drama and such when all they are interested in is seeing a monster eat brains.

BTW, the critics sometimes don't get it. Transformers Age of Extinction is a perfect example. 17% from the critics and over a Billion in worldwide BO. There is a disconnect there somewhere.

WeaponXCII - 4/4/2022, 1:36 PM

Man... that response definitely gives me a ton of sympathy for him. Really feels like his heart was in it. It definitely looks like a case of Sony screwing over directors again.

BobGarlen - 4/4/2022, 1:37 PM

I appreciate when directors take a respectful tone about the critical reception. I saw The movie and I enjoyed it. It isn't anything grand or Oscar-Worthy but it was a fun time.

John456 - 4/4/2022, 1:38 PM

Morbius was not deserving of the bad reviews it got, it baffles me how an awful abomination like Venom: Let There Be Carnage gets so many reviews but this got trashed and barely does well at the theaters.

Thought I would hate Marvel's Morbius but this was a pretty good vampire horror film especially for being PG-13. Jared Leto was very fitting and convincing as Michael Morbius the vampire effects on him was faithful to the comics and terrifying to look at & this was a very dark film. This was much better than both Venom films.

bobevanz - 4/4/2022, 1:46 PM

@John456 - it's literally Underworld without Beckensale booty, gaahbage

John456 - 4/4/2022, 3:38 PM

@bobevanz - I'll admit this movie was derivative taking from much better films, Morbius Origin story is similar to Bruce Waynes in Batman Begins & Blade but Morbius is pretty similar character to Blade, there was also one plot hole and scenes missing from the movie that was in the trailers. But still I enjoyed it hopefully all these scenes are added back when it comes out on Blu-Ray.

bobevanz - 4/4/2022, 1:45 PM

A word of advice: stay away from Sony

xfactor - 4/4/2022, 1:45 PM

Better luck next time pal.

bobevanz - 4/4/2022, 1:47 PM

Fletcher said it best, don't settle for good.
https://youtu.be/2alXisG1tOQ
Either be the best or gtfo of the way

Reeds2Much - 4/4/2022, 1:49 PM

"I don't know why no one likes my Ford Pinto, it's better than the car that was hit by a train."

- Audience reviews

UniqNo - 4/4/2022, 1:50 PM

Not seen this, nor is there any intention for me to pay yo, but he's had some solid films in the past. Judging from the reviews and the fun reaction, it just sound like another example of Sony meddling.

Splash - 4/4/2022, 1:56 PM

Pretty great response honestly. I'm the biggest Sony detractor there is and I'm not blind to the film's flaws, but tbh I saw a decent film within what we ended up getting. We've seen way worse in this genre if you ask me.

MovieMonster - 4/4/2022, 1:58 PM

This came across as a pretty humble response. Hopefully he doesn’t start pressuring Sony to release the Episnosa Cut.

grif - 4/4/2022, 2:00 PM

why does he or anyone else pay attention to rt?

Menks123 - 4/4/2022, 2:05 PM

I'm actually a fan of his work. I enjoyed Safe House and Life a bit (Not AMAZING movies, but really fun and entertaining) so it does suck that this might hurt him a bit.

Frick working with Sony tbh. People should know since Spider Man 3 that they interfere non stop and mess shit up.

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