Kraven is entirely known as a Spider-Man supervillain sans much of an identity outside of that role. Candor ( A Most Violent Year, Triple Frontier, Margin Call, All Is Lost) has my benefit of the doubt, but Aaron Johnson is not remotely a butts-in-seats draw. I have no idea what’s in store for Kraven the Hunter movie, which will open on January 13, 2023. What its failure now means, for better or worse, is that the films from this not-quite-MCU universe have to deliver on their own merits. The sale for Morbius was entirely rooted in the brand and/or that brand’s connection to the Spider-Man universe. It no longer needs Spider-Man as a carrot. Sony’s triumph with Venom is in crafting a franchise with a specific appeal, a gonzo goofy Tom Hardy essentially flirting with himself amid campy violent comic book adventure, even for those who don’t care about the brand. Maybe if Morbius were a better, less “cut to ribbons” movie (Espinoza’s previous films are all A-B coherent), or at least offered as much shamelessly goofy dumb fun as did the first Venom, it might have held up this weekend. Especially in retrospect, that Venom is a smash while Morbius will be lucky to crack 2.5x its $75 million budget is akin to the success of Beauty and the Beast ($1.263 billion) not leading to similar success for Dumbo ($353 million).
Morbius, the living vampire, is mostly known for getting his ass kicked by Blade and/or appearing in the 1990’s Spider-Man cartoon where he has holes on his hands and screams about needing plasma because the show wasn’t allowed to say “blood” or show him partaking in conventional vampire behavior. Venom was so damn popular that Sony would eventually force Sam Raimi to include the character in Spider-Man 3, even while the character’s “grimdark violence” 1990’s mentality clashed with Raimi’s preferred 1960s sensibilities.
0 kommentar(er)
