Jared Leto and Daniel Espinosa on the set of Morbius. Image: Sony
As of this writing on Tuesday April 5, 2022, Morbius currently sits at 16% on critical aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. This means that with just over 200 reviews counted, 84% of the critics who saw the film disliked it more than they liked it. (This reviewer included.) Which isn’t good, to say the least. And it’s especially bad when it’s a mega Hollywood blockbuster set in the same universe as a character whose final film is heading for $2 billion worldwide.
And yet, Morbius is doing well at the box office. It made nearly $40 million in its opening weekend in North America, twice that internationally. Chances are good that it will turn a profit in the end. But that doesn’t make the fact that an overwhelming majority of critics didn’t like your work any easier, and director Daniel Espinosa addressed that in a new interview.
“Look, I have a lot of self-loathing, so I have a lot of criticism of my own work,” the director of Life and Safe House told Insider. “I always try to focus on getting better. But I’m also proud of what I do. There are parts in all my films that I’m really proud of.” He didn’t explain which specific parts he was referring to, but he shared a few stories about how filmmaking isn’t for the thin-skinned.
“When I did my first feature film, it was a little film called Babylon Disease,” Espinosa said. “I remember riding the subway home one day and having a few drinks, so I was a little bit drunk. Someone nudged me on the train and said, “I need to tell you what’s wrong with the second scene in your feature film,” and I said, “Well, ok.” What I’m trying to say is that it’s weird, a bit to make it so public.”
Public – but not always just your vision. In another interview with Uproxx, when asked how much of Morbius he actually owns, Espinosa said: “I think I work best when I’m given a lot of decision-making power. But these movies are big movies that attract the interest of many people. It’s a different process every time.” And maybe that’s the key. Sure, Espinosa’s name is listed as the director at the end of the film, but it’s possible that he feels the bad reviews aren’t entirely his fault. In fact, they might actually be confirmation that he should have been given more control.
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