Blue Beetle
“Blue Beetle” falls into a weird space as it comes after the announced end of the “last” DC cinematic universe, but before the start of the “new” DCU. I personally feel the last DCU was a disaster. Snyderverse fanatics will tell you otherwise, but they're literally the worst fanbase on the Internet (yes the fans, not a commentary on Zack Snyder himself). I would love to just slag on the Snyderverse fans for the entire review, but that's not what this is about. Stay focused, Jared. This is about “Blue Beetle”.
“Blue Beetle” is a good movie. It does something that most of the DCU movies have not done, which is make it about a fun superhero adventure. It never gets too dark and it's not overly complicated. It's a totally fine family movie about a kid who has an alien artifact graphically dig it's way onto his spine and turn him into a unsuspecting superhero. If you aren't familiar with the character Blue Beetle (either of them, because historically there are actually 2 main ones), that's fine. The movie does a great job of bringing the character to audiences in a cool way. I feel the film actually does a great job of introducing a B lister in a way that makes the character seem like an A lister. It reminds me a lot of “Iron Man” in 2008. Not nearly as good, but I would call you a filthy liar (like 8/10 people at least) if you claimed to know anything substantial of the Iron Man character before that movie, and now he's one of the biggest characters on Earth. Which is fine by the way. It's totally cool to discover these characters on the big screen for the first time, unlike what those Snyderverse maniacs would have you believe (ok, last time I'll mention them. I promise. They're just so, SO awful).
Xolo Maridueña plays the titular hero, and I really like him. He's a great up and coming actor, whose break through role was in the great “Cobra Kai” series on Netflix. He does a really good job as the unsuspecting host of the Blue Beetle Scarab. He's for sure going to be a leading man for years to come, especially considering the lack of breakthrough Latin stars. He's helping to fill a necessary gap. And with the ongoing drive in film and television for diversity and inclusion, I hope we'll get to see him in even more substantial roles. Because he really has talent as a lead.
The Reyes family are also prominently featured in addition to just Jaime Reyes (The Blue Beetle). And this works for and against the movie. There are a lot of funny moments with the Reyes family (usually courtesy of George Lopez), but there's just a little too much that starts to get annoying. It's a tricky balance, because I can appreciate that they're trying to do something different. A lot of superhero mythos is about hiding your identity. But right from the first moment Jaime Reyes gets the Scarab, his family is right there, fully aware of his transformation into the Blue Beetle. It's a nice little change of pace.
The film hasn't done that well at the box office, and it's easy to see why audiences don't trust DC (DAMN YOU, SNYDERVERSE!). But it's a shame because this is actually a fun movie. I liked it a whole lot more than “Aquaman”, for example. There are a lot of really cool Blue Beetle moments, like turning his arms into katanas or the clearly anime inspired fight scenes. Is it the best movie ever? Not at all. But it's certainly not bad. I enjoyed it as a palate cleanser among the dark and messy DCU or the increasingly convoluted MCU.
Check out “Blue Beetle” and just turn your brain off and enjoy the ride. There's no extended universe shenanigans you need to worry about. No connections to 20 other films. Just the story of Jaime Reyes getting the Scarab, which works a lot more than it doesn't.
7/10
