Here’s our review for “Blue Beetle” starring Xolo Maridueña, which opens in theaters nationwide on Friday…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Let’s be clear about one thing — you’ve seen huge parts of “Blue Beetle” already.
That’s not to say anybody got a sneak preview or some sort of subliminal message mixed in with the trailers but rather “Blue Beetle” feels wildly generic in so many ways in an overcrowded superhero soup that’s starting to feel a little tired, at least where origin stories are concerned.
There’s a reason why new DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn isn’t even bothering to show Superman crash landing on Earth and his early days being raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent in his new film “Superman: Legacy.”
It’s why Peter Parker as played by Tom Holland didn’t get bitten by a radioactive spider in the latest series of “Spider-Man” films and why no child star was cast as a young Robert Pattinson just for the sake of watching Bruce Wayne’s parents get gunned down again in “The Batman.”
Been there, done that.
Unfortunately with a little known character like “Blue Beetle” you get no such luxury because outside of the hardest of hardcore comic book fans, very few people know the name much less the backstory surrounding his origin. While that opens the door to some twists and turns from the source material, “Blue Beetle” still feels like a story you’ve seen a hundred times before because we have to spend a whole lot of time in this movie just introducing this hero that no one has heard of before now.
Yes, Xolo Maridueña — best known for his role on “Cobra Kai” — plays an unlikely recipient of great powers and we all know that comes along with great responsibility, right? “Blue Beetle” also copies the suddenly popular family dynamic where everyone from mom, dad, grandparents and siblings get mixed up in the misadventures of our new superhero as he tries to figure out his place in the world.
It’s all painfully familiar.
Thankfully, “Blue Beetle” has one thing going for it that truly helps to differentiate this movie from every other superhero origin story you’ve likely already seen or will see in the next few years. This film is steeped in Latin culture unlike any superhero film before it and that really sets this movie apart, especially when dealing with the socioeconomic realities of immigrants, the not-so-covert racism that exists in everyday life and the creeping stench of gentrification.
Those are all themes that play a part in this movie, which really helps “Blue Beetle” thrive over a two-hour run time because there are still plenty of utterly familiar beats in this film that feel like they were just plucked out of stock images and videos from other superhero origin stories of the past.
With that said, let’s get to our full review for “Blue Beetle”…
PLOT
When Jaime Reyes returns home from college (in Gotham City no less), he’s excited to be reunited with his family but he soon discovers a lot has changed in his absence. His family’s auto shop has shut down, his father suffered a heart attack that no one told him about and their home is falling into foreclosure because they haven’t been able to keep up with the bills.
The financial peril is soon coupled with Jaime’s inability to find a lucrative career, even with a law degree, so he ends up working in a high-end hotel alongside his sister. It’s there Jaime encounters Jenny Kord — the daughter of former Kord Industries CEO Ted Kord — as she argues with her aunt Victoria, who took over the family business after he father went missing.
While Ted Kord was resigned to transforming Kord Industries into a bastion of clean energy that gives back to the world, Victoria has much different plans, which include building weapons of mass destruction including a mechanical supersuit that will create armies of unstoppable soldiers.
This technology is all built around an alien artifact called the Scarab that possesses all sorts of power and Victoria seeks to drain every ounce of it to build her war machines. Jenny remains at odds with her aunt — and even offers Jaime a job after he gets fired from the hotel during a brief moment of chivalry — but if she really wants to take back Kord Industries, that’s going to require taking back the Scarab.
When she does, Jenny is nearly caught but she manages to hand off the alien trinket to her new friend Jaime, who returns home with it — and then soon finds himself being merged with the Scarab after it comes alive and fuses to his spine, which creates a symbiotic relationship between them. Before long, Jamie painfully realizes the full weight of the Scarab when he transforms into a blue-suited human weapon complete with a voice that sort of guides him through this new experience.
Needless to say, Victoria wants her technology back and that’s when we’re off to the races.
ACTING, DIRECTING AND SCRIPT
Let’s tackle the performances first, which were all standout with particular nods to Xolo Maridueña in the lead role as Jaime Reyes, Bruna Marquezine as Jenny Kord and George Lopez, who steals a whole lot of scenes as living-off-the-grid-conspiracy-loving Uncle Rudy. All three manage to feel like the lead at moments while still existing in an ensemble cast with Maridueña portraying the reluctant hero, Marquezine playing the heroine trying to do the right thing and Lopez serving as both the moral compass and the comedic relief.
Now that’s also where things take a turn for the worse, especially when addressing the script written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer.
The family dynamic really takes front and center for huge parts of this movie and it’s almost to the detriment of character development for Jaime Reyes, who is supposed to be the centerpiece of this film. There are seriously moments where you completely forget it’s his movie because the Reyes family takes up so much of the spotlight with more than a few beats wandering into full blow sitcom territory that stop being funny and just start being goofy.
It feels like Dunnet-Alcocer was going for a “Shazam” vibe — a criminally underrated first film with a woefully terrible sequel — where the Reyes family means as much to this movie as the lead character. While that works at times, there are other scenes where it just feels like too much and it’s Maridueña just fading into the background while those actors playing his uncle, mother, sister or grandma take the spotlight.
Director Angel Manuel Soto does his best to balance all those moving parts and there are some great heartfelt scenes stuck in there but again, it just feels like this was a superhero teamup movie that only featured one actual superhero.
It must also be stated that Susan Sarandon is absolutely wasted in this film as the cartoonish and overly entitled villain that’s supposed to serve as the foil to Blue Beetle. Sure, she’s a power hungry warmonger hell bent on profiting off other people’s misery but there’s absolutely nothing new about this character that you haven’t already seen in every other generic comic book movie made over the past 20 years. It feels like Sarandon was cast for name value for a poster because anybody could have played this part — it’s just that forgettable.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS MOVIE?
First and foremost, it’s an originality problem because there’s just not much new here if we’re being honest. This really does feel like every other first-time superhero flick you’ve seen already and there’s not much new ground broken in this film like you got with the first “Iron Man” or as genuinely unique as “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”
The infusion of Latin culture is truly a welcome change — please invite more diversity into the superhero genre — but the lack of anything memorable about Blue Beetle’s first adventure kind of sinks this movie as far as rewatchability. The villains are forgettable — don’t worry Marvel constantly has this same problem — and the overwhelming bombardment of various family members never really gives Jaime Reyes the chance to sit comfortably in the spotlight.
That said, the action beats are still fun, the dialogue is mostly great and the effects are solid — far better than bigger budgeted movies like “The Flash” or “Black Adam.” The family dynamic works but the film just needed smaller doses or at least more Uncle Rudy and a little less everybody else.
FINAL VERDICT
Don’t expect this movie to bowl you over with surprises and originality and you’ll probably leave with a smile on your face after enjoying a fun yet predictable adventure. It’s a popcorn flick that feels like a cousin to “Shazam” and gives James Gunn a character worth keeping in his new extended DC universe.
Here’s hoping “Blue Beetle” actually returns for a sequel so we can get something a little different next time around.
“Blue Beetle” gets 3 out of 5 on the Skolnick Scale:
