Film Review

Blue Beetle (2023) — superheroism with a social conscience

An alien scarab chooses a teenager to be its symbiotic host, bestowing him with a suit of armour capable of extraordinary powers…

Ángel Manuel Soto’s Blue Beetle arrives during an awkward pivot for DC Studios, as the era that began with Man of Steel (2013) is being washed away by new masterminds James Gunn and Peter Safran, and yet the Blue Beetle character was announced as being part of DC’s rebooted universe. So is this film going to remain canon going forward? It would be unfortunate if Blue Beetle became a victim of this transition phase, as it’s easily the best DC film in years; an old-fashioned, nicely-performed, well-written origin story.

There admittedly isn’t a lot about Blue Beetle that feels original in terms of its storyline and character types. It feels like the kind of superhero movie Hollywood was making 20 years ago, with an evil corporation after a MacGuffin our hero gets his hands on and must use to take them down while protecting his loved ones. The key difference is what also elevated Black Panther…