After graduating from college, Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) returns home to Palmera City to be with his family. A great number of things have changed since he’s been gone, and he finds himself in the difficult situation of saving his family from financial difficulties. When a great power is bestowed upon him and he becomes the Blue Beetle, he now has the opportunity to make all of his dreams come true. But power comes with a price, one that he may not be able to handle.
Blue Beetle is the most recent installment in the DC Universe, but it exists in a place somewhere between the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) and James Gunn’s new DCU. With that viewers are unsure of what to expect from the film. Were we going to get Guardians of the Galaxy vibes, or were we going to get something so dark and void of emotion that it fell flat like previous DC projects? Honestly, Blue Beetle falls somewhere in the middle. The film is average all the way around. It won’t wow viewers, but it won’t bore them either. It’s riddled with problems, but also, there are moments in the film that land brilliantly, that do exactly as Director Angel Manuel Soto had hoped–but when all is said and done, it’s just another superhero movie, a perfect example of why the term “superhero fatigue” came to be.
Let’s start with the good. Maridueña is the best part of the entire film. He seems to embody emotion like the Hollywood greats, and in every second of his performance viewers are able to feel what he does. Whether Jaime is giddy, scared, or heartbroken, Maridueña’s talent transcends audiences and allows emotion to be present throughout most of Blue Beetle. I think he’s the perfect choice to play the titular character, and every second that he is on screen is filled with emotion and passion that allows viewers to fall in love with the character (and Maridueña).
This film doesn’t work if Jaime’s family isn’t effectively developed from the opening moments. Blue Beetle is about more than the solo superhero, it’s about family and what they are capable of achieving together. Up to the halfway point of the film not a second passed where viewers weren’t able to absolutely adore everyone in the family. From Uncle Rudy (George Lopez) to Jaime’s father Alberto (Damián Alcázar), and everyone in between, they appealed to viewers. They exuded emotion, they made Maridueña and Jaime better, and they worked together as an ensemble to bring Blue Beetle to life with great vigor. Once we cross the halfway mark, once the family has developed so well that we can’t help but to fall in love with them, Soto and Writer Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer take it all away. Characters begin to lose their luster, they begin to change so drastically that it’s impossible to suspend disbelief–and the movie starts to fall apart from there.
What Blue Beetle never develops is compelling villains. From the opening moments Susan Sarandon (Victoria Kord) felt out of place, and nothing about her allowed viewers to understand or appreciate her. The film takes one quick stab at the sexism card, trying to get her to appeal to viewers on an emotional level, but they abandon that ploy so quickly that it’s impossible even for those who would have cared to give it a second thought. Working alongside Sarandon throughout the entirety of the film is Raoul Max Trujillo (Carapax). He’s certainly given a better back story, certainly given more opportunity to appeal to viewers–but the film waits entirely too long to dive into this aspect of the character. We’ve already made up our minds, and with less than ten minutes left before they give you any reason to care about Carapax, it ultimately falls on deaf ears.
There isn’t anything special about Blue Beetle in the grand scheme of superhero cinema. Yes, this is the first time that a mainstream superhero film has featured a Hispanic superhero and his family, and I certainly understand the importance of this–but in just about every other way the film is exactly what we’ve all seen before. The choreography is stellar, and the action sequences are a ton of fun, you’d be crazy not to think that. The comedy is relevant, entertaining, and what you’d expect from a superhero film that has earned Gunn’s stamp of approval. However, there are so many aspects of this film that call back to films like Iron Man 2, Thor, Avengers: Infinity War, and more–and the origin story is one that we’ve seen a million times. There’s nothing original here, nothing to set it apart from other films within the superhero genre–and that forces the film to remain incredibly average. There are moments that shine brightly, often led by Maridueña–but overall this film is just like every other superhero film that you’ve seen before.
Directed by Angel Manuel Soto.
Written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer.
Starring Xolo Maridueña, Bruna Marquezine, Becky G, Damián Alcázar, George Lopez, Adriana Barraza, Belissa Escobedo, Elpidia Carrillo, Susan Sarandon, Harvey Guillén, Raoul Max Trujillo, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/10
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