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Empathy is a bitch
I just realized that, although I love the 2012 Dark Shadows movie, for some people that movie is their 2021 Morbius.
Reasons I like it: It’s Johnny Depp, in a vampire movie, set in the late 60s early 70s, with all the music and Johnny Depp-ing around that that would entail…
But I get what a fan of the Original Dark Shadows would see: that’s not Barnabas Collins, this tone is too cheerful, they truncated whole arcs, and some characters are missing or smooshed together!
Because that’s kind of how I feel about the Morbius movie: that’s not Michael Morbius, they’ve smooshed three different characters into one worse version of an important one, why does this taste like a diet version of the 90s comic? What is this tone?
But someone probably says: yes! Jared Leto is Jared Leto-big all over the place, and I love that Milo guy, I’d like to ship him and Michael, and ooo! Cool special effects! Boy, what a fun early 2000s comic book movie!
And I cringed, just like those poor Dark Shadows fans did. However, 3 years out from my worst ever experience with the cinema, I can’t completely find it in my heart to hate movie-character Morbius anymore. In the grand multiversal scheme of things he’s just another version of my favorite character, and he did nothing wrong but exist in a shitty movie. And I hope the Dark shadows fans eventually realized this about movie-character Barnabus too. He might not be your favorite version of the guy, but he’s still that guy. And he might become someone’s favorite.
I just thought I’d point this out because sometime in the next decade or so, they will do this again to someone else’s favorite vampire blorbo. I just know that Hollywood will. So I hope that when they do, both fandoms will there to commiserate with the new guys. Because it sucks to see your blorbos done out of character in an adaptation that overshadows their original portrayal.
But just know that that shitty adaptation will make more people interested in that character, and hopefully, they will eventually watch/read the original versions. And then you’ll have new friends!