Film Review: Blue Beetle ***/*****
Blue Beetle borrows much of its appeal from the templates of past superhero films. But overall, what was sampled has been remixed in attention-grabbing taste.
I first became enthralled in the character of the Latinx Superhero Blue Beetle from Cartoon Network’s Batman: The Brave and The Bold.
The 2008 cartoon spanned three seasons and featured Will Friedle voicing Blue Beetle — the sidekick at large to Diedrich Bader’s Batman.
Warner Bros. and DC Studios’ Blue Beetle reinvigorated a satisfying amount of the youthful enjoyment I once got from the titular character despite a rather cookie-cutter plot as far as superhero films go.
Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) is a fresh college grad who’s returned to his family in Mexico. Although always in good spirits thanks to a few subjectively fulfilling comedic performances from Belissa Escobedo, Elpidia Corrilo, and George Lopez (as Milagro, Nana, and Rudy Reyes respectively), the Reyes family has gone broke. Jaime learns his family has lost their shop and their house is soon to follow if their situation stays the same. Unfortunately for Jaime, a pre-law degree alone won't be enough to land him a corporate job.
Jaime and his sister Milagro end up settling for maintenance work at a resort. After a raunchy bathroom joke, the siblings stumble across Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine) being threatened by her aunt-cum-business partner Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon) for imploring her aunt to use the vast resources of their tech conglomerate Kord Industries for purposes more ethical than weapon manufacturing.
After a typical and always prickly ‘I can save myself ’-type rebuttal from Jenny, she warms up to his chatty persona and offers him a job.
Not 24 hours later, Jenny gives Jaime a world-destruction-level weapon known as the Blue Scarab in the equivalent of an In-N-Out burger box.
The scarab chooses him, meshing into his spine and encasing Reyes in a sleek black and blue suit of armor in a chaotic scene at the Reyes’ residence. Why Jaime specifically? We were never given specific justification but we can likely chalk it up to the innate superhero characteristic of selflessness sparsely fed to us prior to Jaime's merge with the Scarab.
I wasn't expecting groundbreaking cinema by any means — especially not from James Gunn’s DCU as of late — but certain scenes were painfully obvious references to previous superhero blockbusters. Jaime flashes back to the past to speak to a dead relative before unlocking his true potential (Black Panther much?). His Becky G-voiced super suit Khaji-Da is basically what Jarvis was to Iron Man. His fight with a bulkier and worsened version of the suit worn by Antagonist Conrad Carapax (Raoul Trujillo) screamed Obadiah Stane aka Iron Monger in the first Iron Man. This was followed up by Carapax brandishing electric whips that bore an uncanny resemblance to the Iron Man 2 villain Whiplash.
However, these similarities weren't carried out in bad taste. The CGI for the most part delivered, Blue Beetle's iconic repertoire of gadgets and otherworldly weapons will likely provide all the eye candy that the average superhero fan might enjoy. And Carapax’s suit design was dope, neon red highlights on his clunky super suit served a nice fire vs. ice type of visual cinematography-wise. Credit also to Blue Beetle for having the moxie to get its hands a little dirty. At one point Blue Beetle was pretty beaten down, half of his facial armor had been broken off thanks to the ferocity of Carapax, likely pulling inspiration from Spiderman’s gritty fight with Green Goblin in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (2002).
My biggest gripe with Blue Beetle would have to be the technical main villain Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon). Victoria — the supposed mastermind behind Kord Industries' military expansion and puppeteer to Conrad Carapax — is more of a Karen with a Napoleon complex than a supervillain. Sarandon’s Victoria Kord hardly felt like a formidable force. But I guess that can be excused when you take into consideration that Blue Beetle is the titular character's origin film, similar to how Paul Dano’s Riddler served more as a placeholder for us to witness Robert Pattinson’s Batman origin in The Batman (2022). But the motivations and believability of Victoria Kord’s character could've used some polishing.
Additionally, where Blue Beetle fell short in its originality, it made up for it in cultural awareness. Jaime being automatically presumed to be the maintenance man and the unapologetic mispronunciation of his name by a front desk worker bode relevance to the various microaggressions many POC have faced. This is, again, typical of modern superhero cinema but the difference was that it didn't take away from the likeability of the story. The aforementioned risque scenes weren't shoved down the viewer's throats, they fit the dialogue and overall situation in the moment.
The Verdict:
If you go to your local theatre expecting a groundbreaking superhero origin film, you've bought the wrong ticket. For lack of better words, Blue Beetle has been done before just in different fonts so to speak. However, the film is fast-paced and exciting with a filling supporting cast, and an appropriate touch of social awareness that superhero fans and the casual family alike might find entertaining.
