i honestly love to see genuine critiques of this movie it really does suck so bad at doing everything, but with all its memed on its good to analyze why its actually harmful and insensitive. thank you for reviewing it! also vampire bats are actually very loving and kind, they make friends and cuddle with each other when cold. this movie somehow just has a vendetta against them and put them in a bat tube where they fly around in bright light until they die all while calling them evil monsters.
Bats just have a bad reputation in media because society has decided they are evil. I wish everyone who thinks of putting bats in their movie would just look at those videos of baby bats feeding on bananas or awkwardly walking around on all fours. Bats are weird at worst and cute at best.
Aside from the horrible enclosure these bats were given, I don’t think they would even act like they did in the movie. Wouldn’t some of them hang upside down? Why would they constantly be flying around?
They would be dead after 2 or 3 days from exhaustion from doing this. His flurry of bats would become a patty of dead bats on the ground in no time. I'm not surprised that a movie that capitelises on disabled people also capitelises on extreme animal abuse.
I’ve been thinking that! Plus, how is he even giving them the food and water they need? Maybe they’re aggressive because you’re keeping tens of them in a tiny enclosure with no room to rest and they’re probably not getting enough of what they need, *Michael*
man ive seen fanfiction that does vampires-as-disability better. literally the other day i was reading a fic where the mc was struggling to adapt to life as a vampire, feeding off of animals and making assistive devices to help him go out in the day. like its not hard to make a sympathetic vampire character whose curse is played more as a disability. also, for the 'vampirism as cure but bad' can also be done way better- there's a series called midnight mass that's like religious horror where these ppl think a vampire is actually an angel. it really dives deep into themes of religious radicalization but a part of the story is how a disabled girl is coerced into taking a 'cure' that's portrayed as a kind of faith healing. really it's some bad shit but by the end the series when it leaves her system she says 'i cant feel my legs', and it's not a moment where you pity her but a moment where you watch as she realizes she escaped the nightmare and is wholly herself again. she can no longer walk and it's triumphant and beautiful. like its really not hard to make vampirism disability stories. how did morbius fuck up this bad.
@@noelsmillers886 uh heads up midnight mass is horror and contains a lot of triggering material, so while it does have beautiful emotional moments i wouldn't exactly call the series as a whole lovely. if u like small town horror then you'll love midnight mass, but it's not for everyone.
@@julietofthebriar Oh, definitely, it exemplifies all of the horrific hypocrisies of faith communities, love for everyone except those that don't fit into their mold, racism against other fates and people who just happen to be born a certain way, and of course, the holier than thou justifications for atrocity. It's such a horribly blunt and graphic showing of how the worst of humanity does not need to become supernaturally monstrous to become monsters and terrorize people.
I would actually want to see a story where disabled character, who blamed all of his problem on disability, gets an out of the bottle week or something without said disability( like a dream for example). Just for them to see their problems are still there. And appart from running up and down the streets, they aren't much better at sloving them. Just for the mc to get back physically back as they was, and goes to fix their own probles as they are.
This could be a really interesting fantasy or superhero movie, where perhaps they have some mysterious power they can activate to overcome their disability but realize this causes even more problems, compounding on their already existing ones. There could not be an existing villain until a failing relationship with a friend, a lover, or family creates the villain, when the hero starts abusing their power and forgets to realize just how much they owe to these people when they suddenly don't need their power anymore. Could even have a moment where the backstory was that they were "put on disability by some asshole super who wasn't thinking about all the normal people around them," and in the process of trying out their powers or trying to fight the villain, ends up potentially putting some random stranger on disability through traumatic injury, while realizing the burdens that this new power gave them and that it was far from a silver bullet to solve all their problems. The issue was, and always would be, who they are as a person. And as they grow as a responsible human being, so does their grasp on their power and their ability to use it properly for good.
Gonna add this to my ever-growing list of reasons that Morbius sucked, cause goddamn it was bad. Also one minor correction. It doesn't take place in the MCU, it takes place in the Spider-manless Sony Spider-Man universe. The Vulture at the end is from the MCU though. If that all sounds really fucking stupid it's because it is.
As someone who has watched every movie in the MCU and Sony-verse this is correct and the Sony-verse is going to crash and burn because they now have 1. Venom 2. Morbius and 3. Vulture from a different universe
I know your main topic is disability, but I just want to say thank you for doing those bats justice with a thorough explanation of what vampire bats do and don't actually do. :) They get too much hate that comes from ignorance.
As someone with congenital HIV, what you said about cures and your cancer analogy resonated with me. Viral loads can be reduced to such a degree that they are not able to be detected through lab testing and a person with an undetectable viral load will live a normal life. That being said, there is no "cure" for HIV, nor a cure for the progressed stage of the virus, AIDS; it can only be reduced back down to HIV with reasonable viral load and CD4 counts.
Honestly they could've even casted somebody with an invisible or conditional disability to play Michael Morbius and like, it'd probably have the same issues of them not knowing how to walk on crutches, but at least it wouldn't be taking away a disabled role from a disabled person EDIT: Somebody pointed out that, because temporary disabilities exist, somebody who used a cane in the past would also be a good option
You are a brave and powerful being that transcended humanity, for you have actually laid eyes on morbin’ time instead of admiring it from afar like the rest of us puny mortals
also, you could hire a disabled actor who has varied mobility! they could do the active scenes on good mobility days, and they could always do the crutches scenes. but that'd require accommodating a disabled actor, and we know Hollywood doesn't do shit like that 😐
You know they would make up some excuses about the insurance, the reliability of an actor, and insane expenses of even an hour of filming with how much staff they have to hire. My counterpoint being: you do know that you DON'T need to spend this much on everything, right? If this is what Hollywood is churning out with how much they're already spending on production and need to get back just to break even, clearly the approach is broken.
I’m a huge MCU fan, but god I can’t bring myself to go near Morbius. I’m likely to never watch it because I hate Jared Leto, and I was aware of the awful script writing but I didn’t expect it to be as weirdly ableist as it was.
@@jay15951 ye, Ik its MCU adjacent (thank f**k). Plus knowing Feige, this is one thing he won’t cherrypick to be in the MCU. Very nervous about what Sony does next
@@HighlandHellboy "Very nervous about what Sony does next" HAHAHAHAHAHA, we actually know from interviews what sony is doing next and... well, it's as bad as morbius. if you wanna know: ... ... A Kraven the Hunter movie. Sony is trying to take villains/antiheros and turn into heroes because they can't use spiderman. Venom, Morbius and now Kraven. Kraven the Hunter played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson is described as "animal lover" and "protector of the natural world". Kraven the hunter is a white big-game hunter who wears a lion pelt and kills endangered animals for fun, and in this movie he's going to be a hero and "animal lover". Sony is
@@HotDogTimeMachine385 I knew there was plans for Kraven, but yikes I didn’t know that. I’ve also heard about their other projects but each one sounds worse than the last. Real shame too because Kraven would be perfect for a Tom Holland Spidey movie.
For the vampires only drinking human blood thing, I think that comes from their original symbolism of human s*xuality (which we usually only do with other humans). But since the symbolism has changed and the mechanics of the vampirism are supposed to work like a vampire bat’s… yeah it makes no sense here.
Yep, you got it exactly. In my vampire story, feeding directly (as opposed to from a blood bag) is a sexual act, so vampires exclusively feed off humans because most people are squicked out by beastiality and for good reason. I've read other stories where vampirism is a metaphor for something else, like addiction, or just isn't a metaphor at all, and those stories can get away with having vampires drink animal blood easily enough.
Wow I didn't know that. This entire time I thought vampires drink human blood because it tastes better. Like in the Castlevania anime and Adventure Time.
I know this isn't going along with the theme of the other comments, but your point on the whole "Why human blood?" just reminded me of a Tumblr post saying that rats are CapriSuns for vampires.
like I don't mind if the vampire media is very explicitly supernatural horror, and we're going for an abuser/inevitability of death metaphor with the vampires. like yeah sure, it makes sense that an undead horror would only be able to survive by feeding off humans, I can suspend my disbelief here. but in this movie Morbius is just some guy who got some vampire bat DNA put in him? vampires aren't really scary if you try to logic them into existence, because yeah in this scenario he probably could just get by on rare rat steaks.
"There's no reason why a vampire should have to be limited to human blood" Ok now I just wanna write a story about a chill vampire who gets blood from a veterinarian friend during their regular blood tests on animals
Ok now here me out, I feel like there is probably a parallel universe where this movie is actually good. At points it feels like there is a good script trapped inside this movie and if it could it would scream until it is let free.
And what good points would there be? There is no good story, the actors do badly, the production is bad, the lead actor is pretentious, the movie was rushed, the brother of Michael Morbius is only well known because he danced weirdly to an unknown techno song, and apparently it knows jack about vampire bats and is ableist. What promise do you see in a movie like this? Or do you just see a movie the exact opposite of this? Because let’s be clear; keeping any part of this movie means it will still be a bad movie. And even if the concept is cool, you’d still end up with a far different movie if you tried making it good.
Him not being able to drink the synthetic blood is hilarious given the plot of the franchise True Blood involves vampires having a blood alternative that they can drink
Morbius is among my favorite classic Spider-man villains, because in the comics he tried to use this for good: sure, he was a bloodsucking vampire now, but he'd try to only eat criminals. Only reason he attacks Spider-man is because he believes the radioactive blood might rid him of his vampirism at the very least. Essentially, Classic Morbius was looking for a cure for something that potentially would kill him, found what he thought was a cure that in some ways made it worse, tried to use the worse part for good, and only tried to attack someone who wasn't a criminal because it might be a cure that works for him. If someone with a disability wants to work to not have said disability, I'll accept that as long as they don't push it on other with similar problems and it's what they truly want. (Now to hope no one takes this the wrong way)
Morbius isn't in the MCU, so you don't have to worry about having seen an MCU film for this. Sony was just trying to ride the MCU's coattails to sell some tickets. The same goes for the two Venom movies. They're not in the MCU either. They own the rights to anyone related to Spiderman, and these characters happen to be in Spiderman's rogues' gallery, so they can use Morbius and Venom all they want without Disney/Marvel being involved at all.
Replying to my own post to add this: Moon Knight is in the MCU now though, with Dissociative Identity Disorder (called out in episode by name), so if you want to take a look at how actual Marvel/Disney is handling disabilities in their stuff, it's a 6 episode TV series on Disney+. Going into it, I knew they couldn't not give them DID without being called out for avoiding disabilities, and that if they did give them DID, they had to do a decent enough job with it or they would get backlash. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about their take on it either way, and would rather hear the opinion of someone closer to the issue. They go much deeper into Moon Knight's DID than I expected them to. It's basically what most of the runtime seems to actually be about.
@@thajocoth Ive been scared to watch moonknight because of how DID is portrayed in media. I dont have it but i have mutuals who do and im sick of bad rep for those guys
@@dustyrose192 DID is one of hollywood's FAVORITE "exotic" killer flavors and it's gross. I also don't have DID but I did learn a lot from... just listening to a few people with DID in the past years. (It's so easy, please hollywood) I read a few comments and DID representation has improved in recent years! Moon Knight is a hero (which already makes him better than most) and of course there's a fantasy twist to it (rolls eyes). But it's surprisingly faithful to real life DID. On a similar note Jane from Doom Patrol has DID and while it's fantastical it's respectful. Mary from Iron Fist also has DID and is respectful and more accurate than you'd expect. They aren't defined by their DID, they have clear alters, they have switch triggers, they have a clear past trauma that caused DID, they are heroic. The people writing them did research DID before writing the characters and that's cool.
@@dustyrose192 moon knight’s portrayal was actually pretty good! Oscar Issac really wanted to do DID justice, and not portray it in a negative way. Obviously they dramatised it a bit since it’s a story full of action and stuff. But overall I’d say it was much better than something like Split
Blade handled disabled representation better back in the 90s with the titular character being a representation of kids born with drug addiction. Not exactly accurate given the whole "being only half vampire and still needing to drink blood" thing but being a young black kid myself with family who had history of various addictions, it was nice seeing an adult being able to function with their addiction and finding solutions to the problems it causes and only succumbing to it when they were too weak to fight it.
Thanks to you I've started noticing more how disabilities are shown in movies and I just couldn't with this movie. I was so hoping you wouldn't expose yourself to this mess! >< This movie FEELS like a script written in the 90s/2000s between the cheap villain and "love interest". The main plot of him finding an alternative to human blood is just...dropped. He's a blood scientist, how can he not have a good way of getting blood?? Oh, don't misunderstand, the after credits scene is stupid even if you did watch all the other movies. Yes, the smoke is pretty....
Yeah, the "walking with crutches" thing looked really weird. I guess the issue comes from the fact that, even with method acting, he learned to walk with crutches in his hands, not to need crutches to walk (dunno if I make myself clear). So he just vaguely did things with them without realizing he was missing their entire point.
The one case where I could accept vampires needing specifically human blood when the lore is taking a science-y angle (rather than a spiritual/metaphorical one) is if they aren't actually digesting it, it's a transfusion. But then, you'd think that blood type would also be relevant?
The bat tank reminded me of a poorly designed beta tank. Also I'm not gonna bother trying to watch this movie. I don't my over critical brain would leave me alone. Another point on the shoe issue my 8yr old can't tie her laces so I cut hair ties of any alastic band tie a knot on both sides. Repeat all the way up boom home-made anti laces. At her age velcro and other none lace shoes are hard to find in this town.
i've been debating on watching this movie, if only because of how much it's been meme'd but i think watching your video was enough, imma not waste my 1h-something on that movie
1) Okay, I need to rewatch the video but I agree on the "why human blood?" for this movie 2) If you want an other film with disability... Planes. Specifically Planes 2.
If you’re looking for recommendations on content to cover, I recommend Epithet Erased. It’s a web series that has the entire first season out on TH-cam, which is only 7 episodes so it wouldn’t take too long to watch. There’s a character with something resembling a chronic pain disorder, as well as a few other mentioned or implied conditions (misophonia is mentioned, implied PTSD and Autism). I’m curious to hear your thoughts on it.
"Why human blood?" I can think of a few reasons why. First of all humans are scared of what directly could affect them, so putting it on humans gives a possible fear factor (other ways of affecting a person could be harming their livestock though, but in modern times most people are not farmers). Second of all killing humans gives a morality question, since most people eat animal meat having it be animals may seem "too normal" for non vegetarians/vegans. A diet of only blood doesn't make sense considering how many things the human body needs, but as said earlier fictional media does not have to line up with reality (also most vampire media shows vampires as undead so assumedly their bodies work differently from living people)
Could you review the Magnus Chase series? It’s a trilogy of books that are part of the Riordanverse (which is what fans call the books by Rick Riordan) and it has a lot of diversity in the characters including race, religion, gender, sexuality and disability - it just seems perfect for your channel
One of my favorite lines in the books (and in any book I've read in general) was something along the lines of: "They called and called for him endlessly, before remembering that he was deaf and wouldn't be able to hear them." THAT's a great use of disability for comedy.
Honestly the way he move reminds me more behind the scenes footage from Walking With Dinosaurs where they use crutches to simulate pterosaurs limb proportions to animate walk cycle.
Movie suggestion: the early 2000s daredevil movie. I remember it being a mixed bag. There’s the superpowers that discount his disability. But then there’s also a sequence where he’s getting ready for his day and we see how he’s modified his surroundings to accommodate his lack of sight. Could be some good discussion there.
Vampire bats have a bad rap. They are friend shaped and I will not take any complaints. More relevantly, this movie is a clusterfuck from start to finish. Thank you for teaching me more reasons why.
Spoilers for the new jurassic world There is a character in the film called maisie who is a genetically engineered clone to not have a life threatening genetic disorder that her mother had. And all she really had to say about that is "she fixed me?" Also genetic alternation solved the main conflict of the film and i wanted to know your thoughts
6:26 well vampires in general are magical creatures where they are either a race almost demon like or are the result of a curse or both, so drinking human blood only is part of that curse, you’re no longer human, you don’t see other people as similar to you, you’re a monster that wants to kill people, is symbolical, and when they do include the idea of drinking the blood of animals you will get by but be undernourished and desire human blood because you’re surrounded by people and you’re hungry, I think if vampires had farms with big animals or close to the woods they would be able to live with just animal blood
I love your analyses, they give a new perspective on movies instead of repeating what pretty much everyone says about them. I’ve become very aware to how disabled people are portrayed in stories since finding your channel. Definitely looking forward to future videos of yours!
My hypothesis to why its especially human blood (in general cases, here it would be out of tradition) is that when you become a Vampire you die and cant produce blood anymore. So you drink blood to literally fill your veins.
10:16 Yeah, like ya know Dracula from "The Grim Adventures of billy and Mandy"? Less of joke then people think. "Dracula don't suck blood, he scrapes and licks!" That's because he is like a VAMPIRE BAT.
Oh no i'm gona morb Ok i morb, so yeah i wasnt expecting to much and humm is not the worst i think theres some movies *coff* *coff* -multiverese of madness- *coff* *coff* that have more questionable writing , is weird they put so much effort in some things but not in others, yet a disable serial killer is tame in compare to ptsd survival triying to destroy the entire exitense, at least i think so
Okay question in regards to writing disabilities handled via extra sci-fi/fantasy advanced technology. Do you think implementing negatives is an important aspect writing characters with advanced solutions to their disabilities? An example that comes to mind for me would be Geordi LaForge’s VISOR that gave him the ability to see. While there were neat sci-fi perks like being able to see EM and radio waves, body heat type sensing it also had negatives like constant use leading to headaches (and for some made it an incompatible option due to how painful it was), and the fact that the visual created was not on the same level as natural human eyesight. So while the user could function like a sighted person, colors and really specific shape/dimension weren’t really perceived as well as the image display was almost like more specific radar used to build an image rather than a camera. I think it’s an interesting bit of lore for technology based world building as well as is one of those interesting ways to explain why LaForge both can help in a specific way but also has specified struggles, yet strikes a balance between not boiling him down to just his disability but not acting like it’s completely not an issue either.
Have you watched these Oakwyrm videos? They should cover most of your question. "10 Disabled Characters From My Childhood" (3 or 4 years ago) "Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood vs Disability" (a couple of months ago) "Disability in SciFi - Cyberpsychosis" (or something very similar, maybe a year ago) All are in his Disability playlist.
@Caitlyn Carvalho House (the character) is primarily an emotionally immature jerk, who happens to also be a badly adjusted disabled person and a prescription medication addict. In that sense he is good representation even though the character is mostly unsympathetic, as not all of his life or identity revolves around his disability or his chronic pain. The character's arc suffers from that the series has so many utterly impossible things happening (Legal Eagle has made a good video about multiple things that absolutely could not happen in any real US hospital, I warmly recommend it). There are a few glimpses of humanity from House here and there across the series, but overall the character is rather stagnant IMO.
@Caitlyn Carvalho I don't think I am a right person to ask. I have not watched House MD consistently, because the lack of realism with all the shenanigans that House the character gets away with frustrates me to no end. I am an ex nurse and know a bit about medical liability insurance in the US, so most of the time I just cannot with House MD (show and character). If the plot remained the same I don’t think I would have liked the show much more even if the actor had been one of us.
hello! I don't know if you've heard of a french movie called "Intouchables", but I think you would like it, it's about a rich man who is completely paralysed, and who decides to hire as his caregiver a struggling inexperienced kinda dumb young guy who didn't even come to the interview for the job (I don't remember exactly why he was there but it wasn't the job), and they end up becoming friends and having a huge positive impact on each other's life I would love to here your opinion about it, I'm sure you would have a lot to say
Now that I think about it, the villain in the 2017 My Little Pony movie is a disabled unicorn who wants to fix herself by stealing power from the ruling class. And she doesn't care if her entire country gets destroyed in the process, because she lost faith in it after being shunned for her disability.
thank you for your sacrifice... the most I've seen of this movie has been the first 30 seconds in gif format on tumblr nd I don't think I could suffer through any more than that edit: I'd like to add that half the scenes where there's fighting aren't even the real actors, it's stunt doubles, so with CGI, editing, etc (added this right before you said it lol) it shouldn't've been that hard to cast a disabled person in the role of a disabled person. and if they *really* didn't want to, like if they were worried it'd be too hard on a person with the specific disability and are too cheap to just make it less taxing, they could've at least gotten disabled people to look over the script and coach the actors (beta readers are so important). they might've made a good movie that way
Morbius isn’t an MCU movie, it’s a Sony marvel movie like the Amazing Spider Man and Venom movies, the line does get blurred with No Way Home but it is still not made within the MCU which is just the Disney released ones
the way jared leto walks could be really good in a horror movie with disabled characters why did it have to be as a supposed Normal Disabled Person (as someone who uses forearm crutches). i actually really like that super uncanny valley crutches walk specifically to be ominous and uncanny valley, and i think thats what they were trying to do in morbius, but it doesn't make sense in morbius.
I was waiting for this video as soon as I saw the trailer, and the first 20 minutes of the movie (I couldn't handle Morbin' Time and left during the screening)
If ever you're in need of a constant source of content I highly recommend the tv series Monk. It's a detective show who's hook is that the lead main character detective has... well... seemingly every neurodivergence there is and a far amount of phobias. too. I think they name a few, including OCD, and I honestly read him as autistic at times. Honestly, it's less of a mess than you might think from hearing that. This show was my childhood, and based on the many varying episodes it could be a subject of interest for a lot of discussions. I also believe that the show and character was made with good intensions as well, at least that's what I hear from the behind the scenes. The lead writer, I believe, wrote it drawing from his own experience he has with his OCD, and the actor who played the main lead did so with great respect and awareness for the character. But think-pieces aside, I genuinely think it's a great show. It holds up well for the majority of the show, the characters are fleshed out and have good heartfelt moments, has a major "old noir detective drama" feel to it but it's not too serious, downright being funny at times, the mysteries are EXCELLENT, and it doesn't cross over to that "cop propaganda" vibe like all the other cop/detective shows we have here in the States. I want to give a top 10 episode list so badly, but I'll restrain myself. I could literally go on and on about this show. The first season's episodes are pretty much all hits, so if anyone is interested you don't have to worry about it taking a while before it "gets good". Sorry for that long winded recommendation, great video as always!
Very interesting and insightful video as usual, thank you very much. I have some thoughts on the human blood thing. Mainly: The Angst is the point. Or part of it at least. In a good vampire story, the vampirism isn't just an affliction that makes the afflicted crave blood. A vampire is a person who must, every night, make a choice between harm to themself or harm to someone else. This a powerful narrative tool that a skilled writer can use to build effective allegory or craft a certain mood. This doesn't quite work as well if animal blood is an option, since the average person is quite accustomed to consuming animals not just for survival, but for pleasure, even. So if a vampire thing doesn't give an explicit reason for why it has to be human blood, I just assume there's a magical reason for it. It's fine. Not worth getting hung up on. Though with Morbius and its distinctly unmagical origin of vampirism this is, admittedly, a bit of a leap. This is why science vampires suck. And then there's stories where the vampires are the antagonists and they could totally subsist on animal blood but they drink humans and they drink to excess because they can and I wonder what that reminds me of...
This doesn’t have anything to do with Morbius but I figured I should say it on your most recent video, increases the chance you see this. A friend of mine in college is writing comics, which I think is really cool. We live in Canada and he is native. So the main characters in his unique stories are also native, which I think is super cool and nice because they need more positive representation than they get. Anyways, he bounces ideas off of me because I’m really good at storytelling. I correctly guessed all the story beats in the last episode of Stranger Things season four volume one with no hints, regularly create complex character backstories and I wrote an entire short novella for class. Storytelling and creating characters is my strong suit. Anyways, the main character in a zombie comic he is creating is blind. So today, I showed him your channel, but more specifically you Kubo video so he knows what to and not to do. Your videos are always really interesting to watch as a white male with no major disabilities as it gives me a new perspective and idea of the issues with the portrayal of disabilities in media and society. Thank you for your work. I really enjoy them. Also thank you for giving me more of a reason not to watch this movie.
In regards to the notion of “why human blood”: vampires as an element of *horror* are meant to represent something powerful and monstrous preying on humanity. Hence the aspect of it having to be human blood is actually rlly important to their nature - at least, when you’re telling a story with that theme. It doesn’t work for morbius imo.
i genuinely dont understand why he was walking like that? like... ok, this may be the EDS and chronic exhaution speaking, but Genuinely, people who use those crutches typically dont have that much energy to spend. Weve gotten used to making every step take as much space as we can safely and with the least energy usage, so that uneven, hobbling motion will only tire us out more. I did that my first week of using my crutches, then i realised "hey, i could match my shit up and i wont be as tired" it feels like he is intentionally staying in that first week of use of "what if i reach here, then here, and i forgot to step whoops" It looks... Unnatural in a way that i cant properly explain. Its so unnerving!
I have no interest in morbius, I don't want to read anything about it, watch any videos talking about it, but it would be a shame to miss out on an oakwyrm upload so I guess I will watch this
I have been wondering if Leto atleast talk to some people who use double-crutches before all that "method acting" so he wouldn't ingrained how an able-bodied person would use them, but by your reaction it seem doubtful. Thanks for clearing that up!
I think you'd enjoy the 2014 Anime Your Lie in April. It's approach to disability is almost heartless in its realism. I'd be really interested in your thoughts if you ever covered it.
Re: why it's common in vampire media for vampires to need to feed exclusively on humans: it's for the drama, obviously x) Although if you're going for pseudo-science instead of magic it doesn't really work.
This doesn't really apply to this movie since the vampires work differently and weren't around for centuries but I never understood in vampire media there's rarely ever a better solution then the vampires killing people at random to feed. Like at least one group has to think "why don't we set up blood banks", unlimited food, less risk of getting caught, and they've usually been around for centuries so they certainly had the time to get everything in order so it looks official. I was thinking about this recently while watching First Kill, and the excuse is always like "tradition". But like if there's always 1 vampire that finds it unethical to harm humans in stories there has to be others throughout the centuries too. And even if it wasn't the ethical vampires there would have to be other vampires in the modern day who just don't want to risk raising suspicious if people start going missing or found dead drained of blood.
In the eighties movie My Best Friend is a Vampire, the local butcher provides pig's blood. In the nineties TV show Forever Knight, I think the main character, a police detective, gets bags of donated blood, possibly via his coroner/M.D. friend? He's trying to atone, by solving murders, and doesn't "feed" like other vampires do.
i watched this movie once and i agree the "I'm going to slowly hobble in the opposite direction" line was really fucking funny. now i am NOT disabled. i only had to use mobility aids like crutches and canes for about a year when i split my leg open. but during that i got a lot of...not insults but more along the lines of "omg you poor thing, do you have to walk like that FOREVER!?" i would like to point out this was 6th grade and were dumb little lads who didn't understand that stitches were not permanent, but because of all these comments i got during that time i made it a mission to make as many jokes as i could. as a way to lighten the mood and particularly pointing with my cane or crutches and making jokes about how slow i walk was a daily occurrence for me and i regret nothing
It's kind of a shame that the movie was so bad, I actually enjoyed the comics a little. Granted, the movie treats it differently from the comics; in the 1992 version he's essentially a vanilla vampire who can be temporarily turned human with a serum. He also gets in a weird dialysis coffin but that is beside the point-
honestly i was waiting for you to make a video on this regarding how they treat disability because like- I felt you would have a lot to say about this lmao
12:12 I wouldn't give this any credit. People do the same thing with ski poles. If pointing without something means dropping it (even with a strap) or passing it to another hand, people will just point with the object.
Your analysis is so good, defo subscribing :)) but I think the "human blood only" angst kind of reiterates your point in the impermanence of the "cure " which is in fact a medication as you said
The best part about this movie to me has nothing to do with the movie itself. Just watching Jared Leto do an interview with a Vtuber of all things and never even getting over the fact he is speaking to an anime foxgirl. I felt so bad for her since she is a big Marvel fan and out of everyone in Marvel she got him to interview. Watching Jared Leto being a deer in headlights throughout the whole video is a sight to see
I thought the character from barbie fairytopia disability was helped with the necklace like getting magic prothestic limbs except with wings. Guess I was wrong 😑
Ah Jesus my trypanophobia did not like that clip of him getting the serum put into his spine Yup, this movie sure is a rough one, glad I decided against going to watch it
Just wanted to say, I’m so sorry you had to watch this movie. It’s not MCU but you can tell Sony was just milking the Spider-Man brand for anything that could make them money
A minor note: Morbius isn’t part of the MCU, it’s a part of Sony’s villainverse. Which includes Venom. Crossovers between the two are possible, as shown in No Way Home, but they are explicitly not connected. Otherwise, this is a great video as usual. And thank you for sacrificing your time to this trash fire. Also, something I think would be interesting for a video is your take on Kotallo from Horzion: Forbidden West. He loses an arm early in the game and his arc throughout the game is about accepting his new disability, going from being depressed about it to fully being cool with it, not using his newly made prosthetic arm outside of battle. Plus, his warrior culture is shown to be very toxic and hateful to him due to his disability making him less capable of fighting (this is a world where people normally fight with melee weapons and bows). And it’s very clearly displayed as a bad thing.
I was about to be like but morbius isn't in the MCU and then I was just like oh God the Venom Crossover with MCU in the Spider-Man movies and then no shit oh God God
Great video as always. Have you considered doing a video on positive disability representation sometime? I think it'd be good for people to see how it should be handled in a sensitive, empowering way. I think the amputee in Netflix's incredibly pretty movie; Nezha Reborn, handles herself well against the villain and seems to be happy and thriving with her prosthetic by the end of the movie. However, I'm watching from an able bodied perspective so my perception may be skewed. I'd love to see what someone with a better insight into disability representation thinks of that movie.
*puts on arsehole hat* Um actually… Morbius isn’t in the Mcu since it was made by Sony and though they desperately try to pretend that their spidey villain movies are part of the mcu they’re not
I 100% agree with you. The only way I was able to enjoy this movie was basically just by laughing at the weird absurdisms it relies on. I mean, I actually had to use crutches for several years to get around, and I pretty much laughed out loud when I saw his shoe laces because it's so obviously ridiculous. I was so baffled by it. Like, are they saying he's a dorky teen with misplaced rebellion like Miles in Spiderverse?? Honestly the whole film was like that, just utter bullshittery. That's kinda why I get a weird enjoyment out of the Sony movies. It's like, this is so ridiculous and outlandish and they so obviously can't see it that it's funny to me. The one exception is Venom 2. They absolutely knew what they were doing and it was even funnier. Like, it's shitty B movies with a budget.
I’d love to see you cover the marvel (hehe) that is Moon Knight, since DID is classified as a disability, I think they did a really good job with representation for once, especially considering regular plural/DID/OSDD rep is us being evil murderers or having an “evil alter”
i honestly love to see genuine critiques of this movie it really does suck so bad at doing everything, but with all its memed on its good to analyze why its actually harmful and insensitive. thank you for reviewing it!
also vampire bats are actually very loving and kind, they make friends and cuddle with each other when cold. this movie somehow just has a vendetta against them and put them in a bat tube where they fly around in bright light until they die all while calling them evil monsters.
Bats just have a bad reputation in media because society has decided they are evil.
I wish everyone who thinks of putting bats in their movie would just look at those videos of baby bats feeding on bananas or awkwardly walking around on all fours. Bats are weird at worst and cute at best.
Bats are full-on just me and I love them.
I love bats so much, they're adorable
HOLY HELL YOU WATCH OAKWYRM YOOO
I haven't seen reviews about insensitivity, but i have seen reviews about how it truly just sucks as a movie and is really unentertaining.
Aside from the horrible enclosure these bats were given, I don’t think they would even act like they did in the movie. Wouldn’t some of them hang upside down? Why would they constantly be flying around?
I also don't get why would anyone keep a flying animal in a glass container, it would probably just hit it's head
Apparently, bats never need to land or rest their wings and can just fly in circles forever.
They'd only be flying around constantly if they did not feel safe enough to perch
They would be dead after 2 or 3 days from exhaustion from doing this. His flurry of bats would become a patty of dead bats on the ground in no time. I'm not surprised that a movie that capitelises on disabled people also capitelises on extreme animal abuse.
I’ve been thinking that! Plus, how is he even giving them the food and water they need? Maybe they’re aggressive because you’re keeping tens of them in a tiny enclosure with no room to rest and they’re probably not getting enough of what they need, *Michael*
man ive seen fanfiction that does vampires-as-disability better. literally the other day i was reading a fic where the mc was struggling to adapt to life as a vampire, feeding off of animals and making assistive devices to help him go out in the day. like its not hard to make a sympathetic vampire character whose curse is played more as a disability.
also, for the 'vampirism as cure but bad' can also be done way better- there's a series called midnight mass that's like religious horror where these ppl think a vampire is actually an angel. it really dives deep into themes of religious radicalization but a part of the story is how a disabled girl is coerced into taking a 'cure' that's portrayed as a kind of faith healing. really it's some bad shit but by the end the series when it leaves her system she says 'i cant feel my legs', and it's not a moment where you pity her but a moment where you watch as she realizes she escaped the nightmare and is wholly herself again. she can no longer walk and it's triumphant and beautiful.
like its really not hard to make vampirism disability stories. how did morbius fuck up this bad.
I think nk I'll watch it, it sounds absolutely lovely.
@@noelsmillers886 uh heads up midnight mass is horror and contains a lot of triggering material, so while it does have beautiful emotional moments i wouldn't exactly call the series as a whole lovely. if u like small town horror then you'll love midnight mass, but it's not for everyone.
@@julietofthebriar Oh, definitely, it exemplifies all of the horrific hypocrisies of faith communities, love for everyone except those that don't fit into their mold, racism against other fates and people who just happen to be born a certain way, and of course, the holier than thou justifications for atrocity. It's such a horribly blunt and graphic showing of how the worst of humanity does not need to become supernaturally monstrous to become monsters and terrorize people.
What's the fanficccc
I would actually want to see a story where disabled character, who blamed all of his problem on disability, gets an out of the bottle week or something without said disability( like a dream for example). Just for them to see their problems are still there. And appart from running up and down the streets, they aren't much better at sloving them. Just for the mc to get back physically back as they was, and goes to fix their own probles as they are.
This could be a really interesting fantasy or superhero movie, where perhaps they have some mysterious power they can activate to overcome their disability but realize this causes even more problems, compounding on their already existing ones.
There could not be an existing villain until a failing relationship with a friend, a lover, or family creates the villain, when the hero starts abusing their power and forgets to realize just how much they owe to these people when they suddenly don't need their power anymore.
Could even have a moment where the backstory was that they were "put on disability by some asshole super who wasn't thinking about all the normal people around them," and in the process of trying out their powers or trying to fight the villain, ends up potentially putting some random stranger on disability through traumatic injury, while realizing the burdens that this new power gave them and that it was far from a silver bullet to solve all their problems.
The issue was, and always would be, who they are as a person. And as they grow as a responsible human being, so does their grasp on their power and their ability to use it properly for good.
Sounds like a reverse of flowers for algernon.
This comment and this thread are amazing and if any writers turn this into a thing I’d be glad to read it omg
Gonna add this to my ever-growing list of reasons that Morbius sucked, cause goddamn it was bad.
Also one minor correction. It doesn't take place in the MCU, it takes place in the Spider-manless Sony Spider-Man universe. The Vulture at the end is from the MCU though. If that all sounds really fucking stupid it's because it is.
"Spider-manless Spider-Man universe" 😭😭😭
Spider-villain-verse?
As someone who has watched every movie in the MCU and Sony-verse this is correct and the Sony-verse is going to crash and burn because they now have 1. Venom 2. Morbius and 3. Vulture from a different universe
So like the newer Venom movies?
Yeah even based on the plot of no way home it makes no damn sense unless the vulture was already from the morbius universe
I know your main topic is disability, but I just want to say thank you for doing those bats justice with a thorough explanation of what vampire bats do and don't actually do. :) They get too much hate that comes from ignorance.
It's very adorable to see the bat lick blood like a cat
@@TechBlade9000 Fr it's SOO cute
Scrape and lick
They take a teaspoon of blood and leave a teeny hole. Many don’t actually give diseases so why not just let them eat??
@@TechBlade9000it looks morbid but it isn’t actually that bad. They take a little bit (about a teaspoon) and leave.
As someone with congenital HIV, what you said about cures and your cancer analogy resonated with me. Viral loads can be reduced to such a degree that they are not able to be detected through lab testing and a person with an undetectable viral load will live a normal life. That being said, there is no "cure" for HIV, nor a cure for the progressed stage of the virus, AIDS; it can only be reduced back down to HIV with reasonable viral load and CD4 counts.
Honestly they could've even casted somebody with an invisible or conditional disability to play Michael Morbius and like, it'd probably have the same issues of them not knowing how to walk on crutches, but at least it wouldn't be taking away a disabled role from a disabled person
EDIT: Somebody pointed out that, because temporary disabilities exist, somebody who used a cane in the past would also be a good option
What if they cast a disabIed person who's used crutches in the past? That way, it would Iook naturaI *and* they couId do some of the action scenes
@@L_Aster Also a good idea, since needing crutches isn't necessarily permanent
Yeah, but then they’d have to be in this movie.
@@crittermoded so do they need to cast an actual murderer to play a murderer in a movie?
@@youtubestudiosucks978 thats a bad-faith argument and you know it
You are a brave and powerful being that transcended humanity, for you have actually laid eyes on morbin’ time instead of admiring it from afar like the rest of us puny mortals
also, you could hire a disabled actor who has varied mobility! they could do the active scenes on good mobility days, and they could always do the crutches scenes. but that'd require accommodating a disabled actor, and we know Hollywood doesn't do shit like that 😐
I just was thinking this.
You know they would make up some excuses about the insurance, the reliability of an actor, and insane expenses of even an hour of filming with how much staff they have to hire.
My counterpoint being: you do know that you DON'T need to spend this much on everything, right? If this is what Hollywood is churning out with how much they're already spending on production and need to get back just to break even, clearly the approach is broken.
Superman
I genuinely read it as morbility for a little bit lol.
@@monjishbhattacharyya3795 nah the mobility is varied but the morbility must be kept at 10 the whole time
I’m a huge MCU fan, but god I can’t bring myself to go near Morbius. I’m likely to never watch it because I hate Jared Leto, and I was aware of the awful script writing but I didn’t expect it to be as weirdly ableist as it was.
It's also not mcu so your still good
@@jay15951 ye, Ik its MCU adjacent (thank f**k). Plus knowing Feige, this is one thing he won’t cherrypick to be in the MCU. Very nervous about what Sony does next
@@HighlandHellboy "Very nervous about what Sony does next"
HAHAHAHAHAHA, we actually know from interviews what sony is doing next and... well, it's as bad as morbius.
if you wanna know:
...
...
A Kraven the Hunter movie. Sony is trying to take villains/antiheros and turn into heroes because they can't use spiderman. Venom, Morbius and now Kraven.
Kraven the Hunter played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson is described as "animal lover" and "protector of the natural world".
Kraven the hunter is a white big-game hunter who wears a lion pelt and kills endangered animals for fun, and in this movie he's going to be a hero and "animal lover". Sony is
@@HotDogTimeMachine385 I knew there was plans for Kraven, but yikes I didn’t know that. I’ve also heard about their other projects but each one sounds worse than the last. Real shame too because Kraven would be perfect for a Tom Holland Spidey movie.
@@HotDogTimeMachine385 uh oh -- my head hurts just from reading that, so thanks for the warning!
For the vampires only drinking human blood thing, I think that comes from their original symbolism of human s*xuality (which we usually only do with other humans). But since the symbolism has changed and the mechanics of the vampirism are supposed to work like a vampire bat’s… yeah it makes no sense here.
You don't have to censor comments on TH-cam
@@donnyshields4450 Unless TH-cam does that, themselves?
@@neymiiie oh! I have friends who get triggered by that word dropping out of nowhere so I censor it out of habit.
Yep, you got it exactly. In my vampire story, feeding directly (as opposed to from a blood bag) is a sexual act, so vampires exclusively feed off humans because most people are squicked out by beastiality and for good reason. I've read other stories where vampirism is a metaphor for something else, like addiction, or just isn't a metaphor at all, and those stories can get away with having vampires drink animal blood easily enough.
Wow I didn't know that. This entire time I thought vampires drink human blood because it tastes better. Like in the Castlevania anime and Adventure Time.
I know this isn't going along with the theme of the other comments, but your point on the whole "Why human blood?" just reminded me of a Tumblr post saying that rats are CapriSuns for vampires.
It reminded me of that coconut water for vegan vampires post
like I don't mind if the vampire media is very explicitly supernatural horror, and we're going for an abuser/inevitability of death metaphor with the vampires. like yeah sure, it makes sense that an undead horror would only be able to survive by feeding off humans, I can suspend my disbelief here. but in this movie Morbius is just some guy who got some vampire bat DNA put in him? vampires aren't really scary if you try to logic them into existence, because yeah in this scenario he probably could just get by on rare rat steaks.
It's morbin time
Cmon grab your fiends
We'll morb to very distant lands
"There's no reason why a vampire should have to be limited to human blood" Ok now I just wanna write a story about a chill vampire who gets blood from a veterinarian friend during their regular blood tests on animals
Ok now here me out, I feel like there is probably a parallel universe where this movie is actually good. At points it feels like there is a good script trapped inside this movie and if it could it would scream until it is let free.
And what good points would there be? There is no good story, the actors do badly, the production is bad, the lead actor is pretentious, the movie was rushed, the brother of Michael Morbius is only well known because he danced weirdly to an unknown techno song, and apparently it knows jack about vampire bats and is ableist. What promise do you see in a movie like this? Or do you just see a movie the exact opposite of this? Because let’s be clear; keeping any part of this movie means it will still be a bad movie. And even if the concept is cool, you’d still end up with a far different movie if you tried making it good.
Him not being able to drink the synthetic blood is hilarious given the plot of the franchise True Blood involves vampires having a blood alternative that they can drink
Morbius is among my favorite classic Spider-man villains, because in the comics he tried to use this for good: sure, he was a bloodsucking vampire now, but he'd try to only eat criminals. Only reason he attacks Spider-man is because he believes the radioactive blood might rid him of his vampirism at the very least.
Essentially, Classic Morbius was looking for a cure for something that potentially would kill him, found what he thought was a cure that in some ways made it worse, tried to use the worse part for good, and only tried to attack someone who wasn't a criminal because it might be a cure that works for him.
If someone with a disability wants to work to not have said disability, I'll accept that as long as they don't push it on other with similar problems and it's what they truly want. (Now to hope no one takes this the wrong way)
Bats have been described as cats with wings. I even recommended bats to one of my cousins as she needs to partner up with an animal for a semester.
Morbius isn't in the MCU, so you don't have to worry about having seen an MCU film for this. Sony was just trying to ride the MCU's coattails to sell some tickets. The same goes for the two Venom movies. They're not in the MCU either. They own the rights to anyone related to Spiderman, and these characters happen to be in Spiderman's rogues' gallery, so they can use Morbius and Venom all they want without Disney/Marvel being involved at all.
Replying to my own post to add this:
Moon Knight is in the MCU now though, with Dissociative Identity Disorder (called out in episode by name), so if you want to take a look at how actual Marvel/Disney is handling disabilities in their stuff, it's a 6 episode TV series on Disney+. Going into it, I knew they couldn't not give them DID without being called out for avoiding disabilities, and that if they did give them DID, they had to do a decent enough job with it or they would get backlash.
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about their take on it either way, and would rather hear the opinion of someone closer to the issue. They go much deeper into Moon Knight's DID than I expected them to. It's basically what most of the runtime seems to actually be about.
@@thajocoth Ive been scared to watch moonknight because of how DID is portrayed in media. I dont have it but i have mutuals who do and im sick of bad rep for those guys
@@dustyrose192 DID is one of hollywood's FAVORITE "exotic" killer flavors and it's gross. I also don't have DID but I did learn a lot from... just listening to a few people with DID in the past years. (It's so easy, please hollywood) I read a few comments and DID representation has improved in recent years!
Moon Knight is a hero (which already makes him better than most) and of course there's a fantasy twist to it (rolls eyes). But it's surprisingly faithful to real life DID.
On a similar note Jane from Doom Patrol has DID and while it's fantastical it's respectful. Mary from Iron Fist also has DID and is respectful and more accurate than you'd expect. They aren't defined by their DID, they have clear alters, they have switch triggers, they have a clear past trauma that caused DID, they are heroic. The people writing them did research DID before writing the characters and that's cool.
Tune in next time when they botch electro somehow even worse than this.
@@dustyrose192 moon knight’s portrayal was actually pretty good! Oscar Issac really wanted to do DID justice, and not portray it in a negative way. Obviously they dramatised it a bit since it’s a story full of action and stuff. But overall I’d say it was much better than something like Split
Blade handled disabled representation better back in the 90s with the titular character being a representation of kids born with drug addiction. Not exactly accurate given the whole "being only half vampire and still needing to drink blood" thing but being a young black kid myself with family who had history of various addictions, it was nice seeing an adult being able to function with their addiction and finding solutions to the problems it causes and only succumbing to it when they were too weak to fight it.
I read a comic where the vampires drank pig blood but were still heavily ostracized for their ancestors having drank human blood.
Thanks to you I've started noticing more how disabilities are shown in movies and I just couldn't with this movie. I was so hoping you wouldn't expose yourself to this mess! ><
This movie FEELS like a script written in the 90s/2000s between the cheap villain and "love interest".
The main plot of him finding an alternative to human blood is just...dropped. He's a blood scientist, how can he not have a good way of getting blood??
Oh, don't misunderstand, the after credits scene is stupid even if you did watch all the other movies.
Yes, the smoke is pretty....
Yeah, the "walking with crutches" thing looked really weird. I guess the issue comes from the fact that, even with method acting, he learned to walk with crutches in his hands, not to need crutches to walk (dunno if I make myself clear). So he just vaguely did things with them without realizing he was missing their entire point.
The one case where I could accept vampires needing specifically human blood when the lore is taking a science-y angle (rather than a spiritual/metaphorical one) is if they aren't actually digesting it, it's a transfusion. But then, you'd think that blood type would also be relevant?
The bat tank reminded me of a poorly designed beta tank. Also I'm not gonna bother trying to watch this movie. I don't my over critical brain would leave me alone. Another point on the shoe issue my 8yr old can't tie her laces so I cut hair ties of any alastic band tie a knot on both sides. Repeat all the way up boom home-made anti laces. At her age velcro and other none lace shoes are hard to find in this town.
i've been debating on watching this movie, if only because of how much it's been meme'd
but i think watching your video was enough, imma not waste my 1h-something on that movie
The meme was funny till everybody started doing it and then it became oversaturated
And that meme is still the best thing about this movie. And considering it is passé, that should tell you everything about this movie.
1) Okay, I need to rewatch the video but I agree on the "why human blood?" for this movie
2) If you want an other film with disability... Planes. Specifically Planes 2.
If you’re looking for recommendations on content to cover, I recommend Epithet Erased. It’s a web series that has the entire first season out on TH-cam, which is only 7 episodes so it wouldn’t take too long to watch. There’s a character with something resembling a chronic pain disorder, as well as a few other mentioned or implied conditions (misophonia is mentioned, implied PTSD and Autism). I’m curious to hear your thoughts on it.
Oh yeah epithet erased is great. I like how the chronic pain person doesn't *want* to cure their disability.
Epithet erased! Yes!!
Epithet Erased is amazing and more people need to hear about it
"Why human blood?" I can think of a few reasons why. First of all humans are scared of what directly could affect them, so putting it on humans gives a possible fear factor (other ways of affecting a person could be harming their livestock though, but in modern times most people are not farmers). Second of all killing humans gives a morality question, since most people eat animal meat having it be animals may seem "too normal" for non vegetarians/vegans. A diet of only blood doesn't make sense considering how many things the human body needs, but as said earlier fictional media does not have to line up with reality (also most vampire media shows vampires as undead so assumedly their bodies work differently from living people)
Could you review the Magnus Chase series?
It’s a trilogy of books that are part of the Riordanverse (which is what fans call the books by Rick Riordan) and it has a lot of diversity in the characters including race, religion, gender, sexuality and disability - it just seems perfect for your channel
One of my favorite lines in the books (and in any book I've read in general) was something along the lines of: "They called and called for him endlessly, before remembering that he was deaf and wouldn't be able to hear them."
THAT's a great use of disability for comedy.
Thank you! Hubby and I saved 1.5 hours by watching your video instead of the movie.
Honestly the way he move reminds me more behind the scenes footage from Walking With Dinosaurs where they use crutches to simulate pterosaurs limb proportions to animate walk cycle.
it's morbin time?
Movie suggestion: the early 2000s daredevil movie.
I remember it being a mixed bag. There’s the superpowers that discount his disability. But then there’s also a sequence where he’s getting ready for his day and we see how he’s modified his surroundings to accommodate his lack of sight.
Could be some good discussion there.
Vampire bats have a bad rap. They are friend shaped and I will not take any complaints.
More relevantly, this movie is a clusterfuck from start to finish. Thank you for teaching me more reasons why.
the reason it's human blood is because it's for the sake of horror. it's "uholy" and all that.
Spoilers for the new jurassic world
There is a character in the film called maisie who is a genetically engineered clone to not have a life threatening genetic disorder that her mother had. And all she really had to say about that is "she fixed me?"
Also genetic alternation solved the main conflict of the film and i wanted to know your thoughts
6:26 well vampires in general are magical creatures where they are either a race almost demon like or are the result of a curse or both, so drinking human blood only is part of that curse, you’re no longer human, you don’t see other people as similar to you, you’re a monster that wants to kill people, is symbolical, and when they do include the idea of drinking the blood of animals you will get by but be undernourished and desire human blood because you’re surrounded by people and you’re hungry, I think if vampires had farms with big animals or close to the woods they would be able to live with just animal blood
Your so brave and we all thank you for your sacrifice
I love your analyses, they give a new perspective on movies instead of repeating what pretty much everyone says about them. I’ve become very aware to how disabled people are portrayed in stories since finding your channel. Definitely looking forward to future videos of yours!
My hypothesis to why its especially human blood (in general cases, here it would be out of tradition) is that when you become a Vampire you die and cant produce blood anymore. So you drink blood to literally fill your veins.
I read the original Morbius comic book. I didn't expect anyone to go back and read it and make a bad movie out of it.
I don't know what to say.
🎉IT'S MORBIN TIME🎉
Thank you for the sacrifice. Loved to hear a disabled perspective on this.
Also love to see how well your channel grew since the last time I looked
10:16 Yeah, like ya know Dracula from "The Grim Adventures of billy and Mandy"? Less of joke then people think.
"Dracula don't suck blood, he scrapes and licks!"
That's because he is like a VAMPIRE BAT.
Oh no i'm gona morb
Ok i morb, so yeah i wasnt expecting to much and humm is not the worst i think theres some movies *coff* *coff* -multiverese of madness- *coff* *coff* that have more questionable writing , is weird they put so much effort in some things but not in others, yet a disable serial killer is tame in compare to ptsd survival triying to destroy the entire exitense, at least i think so
You have a point, absolutely, but _why_ _the_ _frack_ _EITHER_ ???
With lace up shoes you can actually get these elastic laces that you only have to put on the shoes once and basically turns them into slip-ons.
The vampire thing only makes sense if there is some magical spiritual part of needing human blood.
Okay question in regards to writing disabilities handled via extra sci-fi/fantasy advanced technology. Do you think implementing negatives is an important aspect writing characters with advanced solutions to their disabilities? An example that comes to mind for me would be Geordi LaForge’s VISOR that gave him the ability to see. While there were neat sci-fi perks like being able to see EM and radio waves, body heat type sensing it also had negatives like constant use leading to headaches (and for some made it an incompatible option due to how painful it was), and the fact that the visual created was not on the same level as natural human eyesight. So while the user could function like a sighted person, colors and really specific shape/dimension weren’t really perceived as well as the image display was almost like more specific radar used to build an image rather than a camera. I think it’s an interesting bit of lore for technology based world building as well as is one of those interesting ways to explain why LaForge both can help in a specific way but also has specified struggles, yet strikes a balance between not boiling him down to just his disability but not acting like it’s completely not an issue either.
Have you watched these Oakwyrm videos? They should cover most of your question. "10 Disabled Characters From My Childhood" (3 or 4 years ago)
"Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood vs Disability" (a couple of months ago)
"Disability in SciFi - Cyberpsychosis" (or something very similar, maybe a year ago)
All are in his Disability playlist.
@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 No but I’m gonna look them up now thanks!
@Caitlyn Carvalho House (the character) is primarily an emotionally immature jerk, who happens to also be a badly adjusted disabled person and a prescription medication addict. In that sense he is good representation even though the character is mostly unsympathetic, as not all of his life or identity revolves around his disability or his chronic pain.
The character's arc suffers from that the series has so many utterly impossible things happening (Legal Eagle has made a good video about multiple things that absolutely could not happen in any real US hospital, I warmly recommend it).
There are a few glimpses of humanity from House here and there across the series, but overall the character is rather stagnant IMO.
@Caitlyn Carvalho I don't think I am a right person to ask. I have not watched House MD consistently, because the lack of realism with all the shenanigans that House the character gets away with frustrates me to no end. I am an ex nurse and know a bit about medical liability insurance in the US, so most of the time I just cannot with House MD (show and character). If the plot remained the same I don’t think I would have liked the show much more even if the actor had been one of us.
hello!
I don't know if you've heard of a french movie called "Intouchables", but I think you would like it, it's about a rich man who is completely paralysed, and who decides to hire as his caregiver a struggling inexperienced kinda dumb young guy who didn't even come to the interview for the job (I don't remember exactly why he was there but it wasn't the job), and they end up becoming friends and having a huge positive impact on each other's life
I would love to here your opinion about it, I'm sure you would have a lot to say
Now that I think about it, the villain in the 2017 My Little Pony movie is a disabled unicorn who wants to fix herself by stealing power from the ruling class. And she doesn't care if her entire country gets destroyed in the process, because she lost faith in it after being shunned for her disability.
Thank you so much for speaking on this! I have many gripes with this movie, heavily based on the ableism.
thank you for your sacrifice... the most I've seen of this movie has been the first 30 seconds in gif format on tumblr nd I don't think I could suffer through any more than that
edit: I'd like to add that half the scenes where there's fighting aren't even the real actors, it's stunt doubles, so with CGI, editing, etc (added this right before you said it lol) it shouldn't've been that hard to cast a disabled person in the role of a disabled person. and if they *really* didn't want to, like if they were worried it'd be too hard on a person with the specific disability and are too cheap to just make it less taxing, they could've at least gotten disabled people to look over the script and coach the actors (beta readers are so important). they might've made a good movie that way
Morbius isn’t an MCU movie, it’s a Sony marvel movie like the Amazing Spider Man and Venom movies, the line does get blurred with No Way Home but it is still not made within the MCU which is just the Disney released ones
the way jared leto walks could be really good in a horror movie with disabled characters why did it have to be as a supposed Normal Disabled Person (as someone who uses forearm crutches). i actually really like that super uncanny valley crutches walk specifically to be ominous and uncanny valley, and i think thats what they were trying to do in morbius, but it doesn't make sense in morbius.
I was waiting for this video as soon as I saw the trailer, and the first 20 minutes of the movie (I couldn't handle Morbin' Time and left during the screening)
If ever you're in need of a constant source of content I highly recommend the tv series Monk.
It's a detective show who's hook is that the lead main character detective has... well... seemingly every neurodivergence there is and a far amount of phobias. too. I think they name a few, including OCD, and I honestly read him as autistic at times. Honestly, it's less of a mess than you might think from hearing that. This show was my childhood, and based on the many varying episodes it could be a subject of interest for a lot of discussions. I also believe that the show and character was made with good intensions as well, at least that's what I hear from the behind the scenes. The lead writer, I believe, wrote it drawing from his own experience he has with his OCD, and the actor who played the main lead did so with great respect and awareness for the character.
But think-pieces aside, I genuinely think it's a great show. It holds up well for the majority of the show, the characters are fleshed out and have good heartfelt moments, has a major "old noir detective drama" feel to it but it's not too serious, downright being funny at times, the mysteries are EXCELLENT, and it doesn't cross over to that "cop propaganda" vibe like all the other cop/detective shows we have here in the States.
I want to give a top 10 episode list so badly, but I'll restrain myself. I could literally go on and on about this show. The first season's episodes are pretty much all hits, so if anyone is interested you don't have to worry about it taking a while before it "gets good".
Sorry for that long winded recommendation, great video as always!
Very interesting and insightful video as usual, thank you very much.
I have some thoughts on the human blood thing. Mainly: The Angst is the point. Or part of it at least.
In a good vampire story, the vampirism isn't just an affliction that makes the afflicted crave blood. A vampire is a person who must, every night, make a choice between harm to themself or harm to someone else. This a powerful narrative tool that a skilled writer can use to build effective allegory or craft a certain mood.
This doesn't quite work as well if animal blood is an option, since the average person is quite accustomed to consuming animals not just for survival, but for pleasure, even. So if a vampire thing doesn't give an explicit reason for why it has to be human blood, I just assume there's a magical reason for it. It's fine. Not worth getting hung up on.
Though with Morbius and its distinctly unmagical origin of vampirism this is, admittedly, a bit of a leap. This is why science vampires suck.
And then there's stories where the vampires are the antagonists and they could totally subsist on animal blood but they drink humans and they drink to excess because they can and I wonder what that reminds me of...
Always great to see an actually bad movie get memed on into oblivion, and thank you for your takes! This was actually very informative and interesting
I was tested for anemia today and for some reason I was thinking about this video. Thanks!
Wait- You're telling me you actually watched it? Brave soul.
This doesn’t have anything to do with Morbius but I figured I should say it on your most recent video, increases the chance you see this. A friend of mine in college is writing comics, which I think is really cool. We live in Canada and he is native. So the main characters in his unique stories are also native, which I think is super cool and nice because they need more positive representation than they get. Anyways, he bounces ideas off of me because I’m really good at storytelling. I correctly guessed all the story beats in the last episode of Stranger Things season four volume one with no hints, regularly create complex character backstories and I wrote an entire short novella for class. Storytelling and creating characters is my strong suit. Anyways, the main character in a zombie comic he is creating is blind. So today, I showed him your channel, but more specifically you Kubo video so he knows what to and not to do. Your videos are always really interesting to watch as a white male with no major disabilities as it gives me a new perspective and idea of the issues with the portrayal of disabilities in media and society. Thank you for your work. I really enjoy them. Also thank you for giving me more of a reason not to watch this movie.
In regards to the notion of “why human blood”: vampires as an element of *horror* are meant to represent something powerful and monstrous preying on humanity. Hence the aspect of it having to be human blood is actually rlly important to their nature - at least, when you’re telling a story with that theme. It doesn’t work for morbius imo.
i genuinely dont understand why he was walking like that? like... ok, this may be the EDS and chronic exhaution speaking, but Genuinely, people who use those crutches typically dont have that much energy to spend. Weve gotten used to making every step take as much space as we can safely and with the least energy usage, so that uneven, hobbling motion will only tire us out more. I did that my first week of using my crutches, then i realised "hey, i could match my shit up and i wont be as tired" it feels like he is intentionally staying in that first week of use of "what if i reach here, then here, and i forgot to step whoops" It looks... Unnatural in a way that i cant properly explain. Its so unnerving!
Oh my god I’m so glad i’m not the only one who thought the whole concept of Morbius was ableist.
I loved how Matt Smith had became a Dark mirror to Michael Morbius.
I have no interest in morbius, I don't want to read anything about it, watch any videos talking about it, but it would be a shame to miss out on an oakwyrm upload so I guess I will watch this
Yes this movie is infact ableist because it punishes you for being able to watch it.
I feel a bit guilty for laughing at this.
I have been wondering if Leto atleast talk to some people who use double-crutches before all that "method acting" so he wouldn't ingrained how an able-bodied person would use them, but by your reaction it seem doubtful. Thanks for clearing that up!
I think you'd enjoy the 2014 Anime Your Lie in April. It's approach to disability is almost heartless in its realism. I'd be really interested in your thoughts if you ever covered it.
Re: why it's common in vampire media for vampires to need to feed exclusively on humans: it's for the drama, obviously x) Although if you're going for pseudo-science instead of magic it doesn't really work.
6:32, I think that works in most cases because it's vaguely magical bs just not in Morbius.
This doesn't really apply to this movie since the vampires work differently and weren't around for centuries but I never understood in vampire media there's rarely ever a better solution then the vampires killing people at random to feed. Like at least one group has to think "why don't we set up blood banks", unlimited food, less risk of getting caught, and they've usually been around for centuries so they certainly had the time to get everything in order so it looks official.
I was thinking about this recently while watching First Kill, and the excuse is always like "tradition". But like if there's always 1 vampire that finds it unethical to harm humans in stories there has to be others throughout the centuries too. And even if it wasn't the ethical vampires there would have to be other vampires in the modern day who just don't want to risk raising suspicious if people start going missing or found dead drained of blood.
In the eighties movie My Best Friend is a Vampire, the local butcher provides pig's blood. In the nineties TV show Forever Knight, I think the main character, a police detective, gets bags of donated blood, possibly via his coroner/M.D. friend? He's trying to atone, by solving murders, and doesn't "feed" like other vampires do.
i watched this movie once and i agree the "I'm going to slowly hobble in the opposite direction" line was really fucking funny. now i am NOT disabled. i only had to use mobility aids like crutches and canes for about a year when i split my leg open. but during that i got a lot of...not insults but more along the lines of "omg you poor thing, do you have to walk like that FOREVER!?" i would like to point out this was 6th grade and were dumb little lads who didn't understand that stitches were not permanent, but because of all these comments i got during that time i made it a mission to make as many jokes as i could. as a way to lighten the mood and particularly pointing with my cane or crutches and making jokes about how slow i walk was a daily occurrence for me and i regret nothing
It's kind of a shame that the movie was so bad, I actually enjoyed the comics a little. Granted, the movie treats it differently from the comics; in the 1992 version he's essentially a vanilla vampire who can be temporarily turned human with a serum. He also gets in a weird dialysis coffin but that is beside the point-
honestly i was waiting for you to make a video on this regarding how they treat disability because like- I felt you would have a lot to say about this lmao
12:12 I wouldn't give this any credit. People do the same thing with ski poles. If pointing without something means dropping it (even with a strap) or passing it to another hand, people will just point with the object.
I was waiting for a video about this! Thank you
Yeah even since I saw the trailer on TH-cam while trying to watch a ytp I got the vibes of "hey this movie seems kind of ableist*
Thank you for making this video!
Your analysis is so good, defo subscribing :)) but I think the "human blood only" angst kind of reiterates your point in the impermanence of the "cure " which is in fact a medication as you said
The best part about this movie to me has nothing to do with the movie itself. Just watching Jared Leto do an interview with a Vtuber of all things and never even getting over the fact he is speaking to an anime foxgirl. I felt so bad for her since she is a big Marvel fan and out of everyone in Marvel she got him to interview. Watching Jared Leto being a deer in headlights throughout the whole video is a sight to see
I thought the character from barbie fairytopia disability was helped with the necklace like getting magic prothestic limbs except with wings. Guess I was wrong 😑
*looks at title*
Your sacrifice will be forever remembered and honored
Ah Jesus my trypanophobia did not like that clip of him getting the serum put into his spine
Yup, this movie sure is a rough one, glad I decided against going to watch it
Or he could have put the laces in the shoe, which I did myself, I'm not very good at tying the shoes
worst part of fhis whole meme is that i had to specify that i was saying “mobius” not “morbius” SIX TIMES while trying to show someone a mobius strip
Just wanted to say, I’m so sorry you had to watch this movie.
It’s not MCU but you can tell Sony was just milking the Spider-Man brand for anything that could make them money
since you talk about mcu, can we have your opinion on Dr Strange's hands injuries and the way he reacts? I'm sure there's a lot to say about it
Thank you for sparing me from wasting an hour and forty-four minutes to see this
A minor note: Morbius isn’t part of the MCU, it’s a part of Sony’s villainverse. Which includes Venom. Crossovers between the two are possible, as shown in No Way Home, but they are explicitly not connected. Otherwise, this is a great video as usual. And thank you for sacrificing your time to this trash fire.
Also, something I think would be interesting for a video is your take on Kotallo from Horzion: Forbidden West. He loses an arm early in the game and his arc throughout the game is about accepting his new disability, going from being depressed about it to fully being cool with it, not using his newly made prosthetic arm outside of battle.
Plus, his warrior culture is shown to be very toxic and hateful to him due to his disability making him less capable of fighting (this is a world where people normally fight with melee weapons and bows). And it’s very clearly displayed as a bad thing.
I was about to be like but morbius isn't in the MCU and then I was just like oh God the Venom Crossover with MCU in the Spider-Man movies and then no shit oh God God
Great video as always. Have you considered doing a video on positive disability representation sometime? I think it'd be good for people to see how it should be handled in a sensitive, empowering way.
I think the amputee in Netflix's incredibly pretty movie; Nezha Reborn, handles herself well against the villain and seems to be happy and thriving with her prosthetic by the end of the movie. However, I'm watching from an able bodied perspective so my perception may be skewed. I'd love to see what someone with a better insight into disability representation thinks of that movie.
*puts on arsehole hat*
Um actually… Morbius isn’t in the Mcu since it was made by Sony and though they desperately try to pretend that their spidey villain movies are part of the mcu they’re not
Actually marvel (not Sony) hired disabled actress for role of echo and she’s absolutely badass 😍
I 100% agree with you. The only way I was able to enjoy this movie was basically just by laughing at the weird absurdisms it relies on. I mean, I actually had to use crutches for several years to get around, and I pretty much laughed out loud when I saw his shoe laces because it's so obviously ridiculous. I was so baffled by it. Like, are they saying he's a dorky teen with misplaced rebellion like Miles in Spiderverse??
Honestly the whole film was like that, just utter bullshittery. That's kinda why I get a weird enjoyment out of the Sony movies. It's like, this is so ridiculous and outlandish and they so obviously can't see it that it's funny to me. The one exception is Venom 2. They absolutely knew what they were doing and it was even funnier. Like, it's shitty B movies with a budget.
8:58 If only he just fed on cops, he wouldn't need to be stopped. 😔
I was shook to discover that you're a Taika Waititi fan, but I decided to finish watching the video and Like it anyway. 😉
I’d love to see you cover the marvel (hehe) that is Moon Knight, since DID is classified as a disability, I think they did a really good job with representation for once, especially considering regular plural/DID/OSDD rep is us being evil murderers or having an “evil alter”