Morbius may have claimed the number one spot at the box office over the weekend but its $39.1 million start was a bit below some of the studio tracking and it’s clear that the movie saw a decline in attendance between Friday and Saturday. The film received a mediocre “C+” CinemaScore from opening night moviegoers but professional critics were the first to rip into the latest Sony Marvel release. As of this writing, the film is very rotten at 17% on Rotten Tomatoes and now the film’s director, Daniel Espinosa, is reacting to the movie’s negative reception.
During a recent interview with Insider, Espinosa touched on his reaction to the poor reviews for Morbius. He explained that he has been making movies for quite some time but it’s still a “strange thing to make something so public.” He admitted that he can harbor a lot of “self-hatred” which makes him critical of his own work but he can always find parts of them to be proud of:
“The point I’m making is that it’s a strange thing to make something that is so public. Look, I have a lot of self-hatred, so I have a lot of criticism of my own work. 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.”
I’ll give Espinosa credit for finding aspects of all of his films to love and I’m sure seeing the critical beating that Morbius is getting can’t be easy. That being said, I saw the film yesterday and all I can say is that the poor reaction is warranted. That’s not to say the film’s issues are Espinosa’s fault. It looks like the movie went through the paces in the editing room and there may be more issues with Sony interfering rather than questions about Espinosa’s talent as a filmmaker. Whatever went wrong, I don’t think it lies solely at the feet of Daniel Espinosa.
What are YOUR thoughts on Daniel Espinosa’s reaction to Morbius’ negative reviews?