Movie Review: Blue Beetle

August 16, 2023

by Caleb Rheam, Reporter

A down on their luck, low status young person with grand ambitions gets embroiled in a large conspiracy that they never could have anticipated. During this conspiracy, they gain powers that they never could have imagined. There is a hilarious sequence in which they clumsily learn to use and control their newfound powers while slapstick chaos ensues. After a tough loss, they feel that they may be unworthy of the powers that they now have. Only to receive a rousing speech from a loved one and realize that it wasn’t the powers that made them a hero, the hero was inside them all along…. Put these all together and you have…. Star Wars! (No) Shazam? (Nope) Turn the kid into a billionaire so that we can have Iron Man? (Nuh-uh)

You actually have DC’s newest superhero outing Blue Beetle.

Mild Spoilers Ahead

Image provided by Warner Bros. Discovery

Recent college grad Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) returns to his hometown of Palmera City (Think Miami on steroids) with big aspirations for his future. Unfortunately for Jaime, the dreams come crashing down to a bleak reality when he is informed of several pieces of bad news all at once. This bad news pushes Jamie to work a menial job at the home of Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon), head of Kord Enterprises. He quickly loses this job by coming to the aid of Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine) after he overhears her being bullied and threatened by her Aunt, Victoria. Filled with what is presumably pity, Jenny tells Jaime to stop by the Kord Enterprises building the following day and she will try to help him find a job within the company.

When Jaime arrives the next day, Jenny is in trouble and hands him a mysterious fast food box that she tells him to guard with his life. Fueled by curiosity and the urging of his family, Jaime opens the box to reveal The Scarab. It promptly chooses Jaime to be its host, affixing itself to his spine and imbues him with all sorts of powers (most of which are reminiscent of Green Lantern mixed with a little bit of Iron Man). This is where the action and story really take off. I won’t go into too much detail, but there is a “learning the powers” scene; a fight scene; some “discovering who I am” scenes; and one more big, climatic fight scene. Sprinkle in some cheesy one liners, a bit of trauma from a big loss, and so much talk about family that you expect vin diesel to walk on screen at any moment and you have yourself a fun, if a bit generic, action movie.

The Good

From top to bottom, this cast delivers. The chemistry amongst the Reyes family is a particular highlight. Throughout the movie I kept noting to myself how familiar and comfortable they all seemed with each other. This was especially true of the films lead Xolo Maridueña. He seemed to have instant chemistry with everyone that he interacted with and I fully bought into him as a son, nephew, brother, grandson, and hero.

It was also really wonderful to see a movie that was centered around a Latinx family actually have a cast that was Latinx! I won’t name, names but we all know that in the past, some studios wouldn’t have made this choice. So I count that as a real win for DC!

Another really good thing about this movie was the pacing. There has been a recent string of superhero movies that have seemed to drag incessantly onward, almost as if the filmmakers were afraid to get to the action and the climax. Blue Beetle does not suffer from this. While there is certainly some time from from the beginning of the film to when the Scarab and therefore the Blue Beetle emerges, none of it feels like wasted time or “filler”. It all serves a purpose and moves the story along in a way that was easy to follow.

The Not So Good

The CGI in this movie was not great. There were certainly some scenes that were much better than the others. For instance anytime we got to see the Palmera City skyline it was a vibrant, and colorful treat. There were also a couple of good moments in some nighttime fight scenes that stood out above the rest.

Overall, though I had the distinct feeling that I was watching a cutscene on a mid-level PS5 game rather than a scene in a blockbuster movie that reportedly had a 120 million dollar budget.

The Bad:

Time to rip the bandaid off. To call this script derivative would be an understatement. There were times where the writing felt downright lazy. It felt like someone had fed every superhero movie ever made into ChatGPT and then just took the first draft of whatever the AI had spit out. From cliches like the villain mispronouncing or downright forgetting their henchmen’s names; dead or missing parents; the final boss fight being the hero VS a bad guy that has their exact powers; to the hero finding out that his true power comes from the love that he has for his family. This film has ALL of them. While the cast and director and do their best with what they were given, there isn’t a team alive who could make this script any less predictable or paint by numbers.

Overall

Now I know you’re saying “that’s all great… but how many stars? Should I see it or not?” Let me tell you! I think that while it may be a lazy script, the cast and direction more than make up for it. This movie was ultimately a fun time. In my opinion, that’s all anyone can ask of a superhero movie. So my answer is YES. Definitely go see it.

Rating:
ComicsOnline gives Blue Beetle – 3.5 of 5 scarabs.