Throughout their extensive history in film, vampire movies have divided audiences time and time again. I have personally enjoyed many vampire flicks, from old black-and-white films like “Nosferatu” and “Dracula” to 1980s classics like “Fright Night” and “The Lost Kids.” Occasional flops like “Twilight” have also hit the big screen in recent years. “Morbius” fell somewhere in between.

Directed by Daniel Espinosa, “Morbius” explores a Marvel character never before portrayed on the big screen. Unfortunately, the antihero’s first film appearance does not particularly stand out within the Marvel filmography.

The film’s pacing proved inconsistent as some stretches of the movie dragged on while other sequences felt rushed. The choppy editing of the fight scenes worked at times, but the frequent use of slow-motion shots within these sequences felt a bit excessive.

On the other hand, the lead actors delivered solid performances, making the interactions and dialogue between characters enjoyable for the most part. Jared Leto delivers a solid performance as Dr. Michael Morbius, a doctor who is extremely ill with a blood disease that inhibits his ability to walk. He makes it his mission to use artificial blood that he created in an attempt to cure his disease, but when he combines the blood with the blood of vampire bats, his experiment goes awry and leads to his vampiric transformation.

Matt Smith gives the performance of the film as Loxias, the main villain and Morbius’ childhood friend. Loxias has the same blood disease as the protagonist and tragically becomes vengeful when given the chance to cure himself while taking on the unstable side effects of Morbius’ serum. Adria Arjona plays Morbius’ love interest, while Jared Harris tops off a well-rounded cast as Dr. Emil Nicholas.

While the actors themselves did a great job delivering their lines and actions, the film’s lackluster pacing and average writing rush the character development throughout. The movie ended with a cameo from Vulture, a villain portrayed by Michael Keaton in “Spider-Man: Homecoming” in an after-credits sequence, but even that sequence felt forced and rushed.

As a generally formulaic film, “Morbius” was not the worst film I have seen in theaters, but it was far from the best. I recommend waiting until it hits streaming services to give it a watch.