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Daniel Espinosa is staying optimistic in spite of a poor reception.

Sony Pictures’ newest film set in their separate Spider-Man continuity, Morbius, which stars Jared Leto as the titular living vampire, has not been met with uproarious applause, unfortunately. The film currently has a paltry 16% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the audience score only slightly above average at 70%. Due to the film’s less-than-stellar reception, it has begun to become popular as a sort of “irony movie,” with Twitter users circulating joking hashtags like #MorbiusSweep and #TheSummerOfMobius.

In spite of all of this, the film’s director, Daniel Espinosa, is still pretty happy with what he managed to put together. “When I did my first feature, it was a small movie called Babylon Disease,” Espinosa said in an interview with Insider. “I remember one day going home on the subway and I had a few drinks so I was a bit drunk. Someone nudged me on the train and said, ‘I have to tell you what’s wrong with the second scene in your feature,’ and I was like, ‘Well, okay.’”

“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.”

Morbius director Daniel Espinosa confirms Jared Leto pretended to be disabled between shoots https://t.co/GluqorsmpC pic.twitter.com/j3vlfZHIjs

— The A.V. Club (@TheAVClub) April 4, 2022

In a separate interview with Uproxx, Espinosa made particular note of the film’s lead, Leto, whose performance has received just as lukewarm of a reaction. “Almost all actors, in general, have their own reputation of being an interesting person how he works with their characters,” he said. “I think that all of them have these traits. If you want a completely normal person that does only things that you understand, then you’re in the wrong business.”