Today, Sony Pictures gave audiences a new look at the upcoming filmMorbiuswhich follows Dr. Michael Morbius as he turns intothe “Living Vampire” seen in classic Spider-Man comics. The movie takes place in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe of films and the trailer references other Spider-Man movies likeSpider-Man: Homecoming,Venom, and the original Raimi trilogy ofSpider-Manfilms. While the connections to other Spider-Man media have plenty of fans excitedly sharing theories, the brief look atMorbiusbears a striking resemblance to the PS3/Xbox 360 era superhero gamePrototype.
There were two games in thePrototypeseries before it was disappointingly canceled, but the series made its mark on the gaming landscape as something of a foil to theinFamousseries. The two franchises were released around the same time and, whileinFamousallowed the player to choose between being a superhero and a supervillain,Prototyperode straight down the middle between the two and had its protagonist Alex Mercer be a villainous anti-hero. A lot in today’sMorbiustrailer looks like it’s straight out ofPrototype, which is a great thing as many fans of the series are hoping for it to come back andMorbiuslooks like it might be able to whet fans' appetites as they wait hopefully for a revival of the series.
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Morbius and Alex’s Super Powers
On a superficial level,MorbiusandPrototypeseem to share a lot. Both of the stories' protagonists are doctors who wear hoods and dark clothing and have them gain powers that cause them to feed on humans.Morbius needs to feed on blood to satisfy his hunger as he’s a vampireand Alex absorbs people to gain their memories and likeness. Both need to feed off of the lives of others to stay alive and achieve their goals. They both also have similar flight powers and are able to travel through the city openly by flying and using parkour to get around.
Prototype’s Strong Anti-hero Focus
WhileMorbius' superficial similarities toPrototypecertainly make it look the part, the movie looks like it’s going to have a similar tone and share some ofPrototype’s themes. As the movie isn’t out yet, it’s impossible to know if it’ll live up to what its trailer implies, but it looks like it’s going to be asking some questions about the morality of being an antihero.
Prototypedidn’t give the player a whole lot of agency when it came to its narrative, but the game’s story certainly gave players a lot to think about when it came to Alex Mercer. On one hand, his violent actions clearly caused the deaths of many different NPCs, some that he knew and many that were either just random civilians or enemies, while on the other he was experimented on and deserved the chance to know why. Generally speaking, the game allowed the player to make up their own mind about whether or not Alex’santi-hero anticswere justified which was a relatively new concept at the time that it was released.
Based on the trailer,Morbiusseems like it might be doing something similar with its main character as he clearly needs to hurt people in order to feed, but he’s torn about doing so due to his background as a doctor and regular, non-violent human. Hopefully, the movie can deliver on the promise, but some fans aren’t feeling too confident in it as2018’sVenompromised a similar anti-hero focusin its marketing but didn’t deliver in the actual film. That said, even ifMorbiusisn’t able to address the questions of its characters' morality in the film, it still shares some superficial details withPrototypeand will likely be worth a watch for fans.
Prototypeis available for PS3 and Xbox 360.
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