Popcorn Perspectives with Danny Minton
Week of April 4, 2022
Morbius
Rated PG-13 for some frightening images, intense sequences of violence and brief strong language
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 17%
In Theaters
While not part of the Kevin Feige MCU universe, The Marvel comic book character is getting his theatrical debut thanks to Sony and their pre-Disney deal. Jared Leto plays the crippled scientist Dr. Michael Morbius who uses vampire bats to try to put his broken body together again. Unfortunately this turns him into a vampire. This seems to be okay as long as he can keep it a secret, but when his childhood buddy with the same disease (Matt Smith) gets ahold of the formula, he becomes the murderous type, and Morbius must try to stop him. It’s not a bad idea for a marvel hero and there are some interesting bones here. But the whole thing is a sloppy mess from start to finish. It feels like a really long trailer that just won’t end, with one action sequence after another but hardly a shred of character development and actors who can’t seem to pronounce their dialog correctly. They try to make it a bit scary, which would be nice if it was, but instead it comes off as silly and unnecessary. At this point I would rather leave this character out of the MCU (there is no plan to add him) until Disney and Marvel can resurrect him under better circumstances, years form now. One thing to keep in mind is that this film was supposed to be released 2 years ago, and while I wouldn’t blame Covid for its failure, it certainly didn’t benefit from its time to marinate. They would have been better off sending it straight to streaming during the pandemic and blamed that for its failure rather than the bad filmmaking. D
Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood
Rated PG-13 for injury images, some suggestive material and smoking
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%
Streaming on Netflix
Writer/director Richard Linklater, using his distinctive animation style, tells the story of what it was like to be a child growing up in Houston during the 60s with the space race as the backdrop. Creating the narrative of NASA needing a young boy to go up due to creating a module that was too small for adults sets up a beautifully told story of what the day-to-day was like in a fashion that can only be described as nostalgic bliss. For 90 minutes you are whisked away to a childhood that most will find familiar enough to their own, with Jack Black as the narrator giving the play by play. This film kind of snuck up on me and when I started watching, it immediately put me in a happy place. In my opinion, it is certain to be a frontrunner for Best Animated Picture next year and would have probably beat Encanto had it seen a release date last December. It will definitely be one that you start recommending to friends, especially if they grew up in the Houston area at or near that time. A