The summer blockbuster season is almost at an end, but before we start looking ahead to the autumn (and the winter) there’s still time for one more comic book movie to round out the summer. The film is the DC superhero adventure picture, Blue Beetle.
Directed by Ángel Manuel Soto, Blue Beetle stars Xolo Maridueña, Susan Sarandon, George Lopez, and Raoul Trujillo. The movie is new to UK and US cinemas from today and is the 14th film in the soon-to-be-deceased DC Extended Universe.
Actually, is Blue Beetle the 14th instalment of the DCEU? Well, at this moment in time it is – but that could change.
There have been a few vague and very confusing comments about Blue Beetle’s status as a DCEU movie, with suggestions it *might* not be connected to the Henry Cavill/Ben Affleck-era of DC movies (which is fizzling out) and *might* be the beginning of something new. Right now these comments sound more like PR spiel than anything else, but they’re not without some credence.
To be clear, NOTHING in this movie ties it directly to the DCEU. So, if you’re interested in this film, but fed up or burnt out with the existing DCEU, then don’t let the semantics put you off.
Ok? Good. Now onto the movie itself.
In Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes returns home from college to discover his family are financially screwed. Times are tough, money is practically non-existent, and very shortly the Reyes family will be kicked out of their home due to a significant rent increase from the landlord.
Keen to help resolve the situation, the next day Jaime goes to work with his sister, working as a cleaner at the luxury property of businesswoman, Victoria Kord. But when Victoria has a heated argument with her niece, Jenny, which is about to turn violent, Jaime steps in to de-escalate the situation.
Although Jaime’s intervention stops the argument in its tracks, Victoria is displeased with the way he got involved in her affairs and promptly fires him and his sister. Feeling bad about what has happened, Jenny then tells Jaime to meet her at Kord Industries the next day, so she can try and find him another job and make up for his dismissal.
Fast forward to the next day, and Jaime arrives at Kord Industries, ready to take on whatever job comes his way. However, while he is waiting downstairs in reception, Jenny is busy upstairs stealing a mysterious scarab from the research department.
The scarab is extra-terrestrial in origin, and is being used by Victoria as the catalyst to develop a special exoskeleton as part of Project OMAC (One Man Army Corps). With the scarab, Victoria can create the ultimate super-soldiers, and this is something Jenny is keen to stop.
After stealing the scarab, Jenny bumps into Jaime in the lobby, prompting her to give him the scarab, which she has hidden in a fast food container. He then takes the container home, takes a look inside, and within seconds the scarab chooses him as a host and begins to bond with him.
Developing a symbiotic relationship with Jaime, the scarab starts to take over his body, wraps him in a protective exoskeleton, and transforms him into a weapon of mass destruction. From here, he has to learn how to use the scarab’s technology for good, while fighting back against Victoria who is very keen to retrieve the scarab and get Project OMAC back online.
Part Iron Man, part The Guyver, with a smidge of Spider-Man, Venom, and even Power Rangers thrown in for good measure, Blue Beetle is a stand-alone superhero origin story. As with all origin stories, Blue Beetle has good parts and not-so good parts, but the important thing is, the film is largely a solid picture.
This isn’t to say it’s amazing – and I’ll explain why it’s not in a moment – but it is to say Blue Beetle is an enjoyable piece of escapism that is well made. Whether the film grabs you or not will mostly depend on how much superhero fatigue you are currently suffering from, but on a general nuts and bolts level, Blue Beetle delivers.
The central cast (with one or two exceptions) are very good; the emotional beats all hit their designated marks; and all of the fight sequences are fun. The soundtrack fits perfectly, the costumes are on point, and there’s no dodgy visual effects or ropey CGI on show either.
Remember how bad the visuals in The Flash looked? Well, that’s not the case in Blue Beetle – all of the effects sequences are good and don’t look like some piss-poor PS2 game.
Blue Beetle is also packed with a great deal of heart, and has been clearly put together with a lot of love. I am going to highlight a negative in a moment, but I really want to make it clear there is a great deal of good stuff in Blue Beetle, and I believe if you enjoy comic book movies, and you just want to get lost in another one, then you will be entertained.
Where Blue Beetle doesn’t work so well, is in the story. Blue Beetle doesn’t have a terrible script, nor is the story particularly bad, but it does feel quite dated and also derivative.
While watching Blue Beetle, you can’t help but feel you’re going through the motions with a story you’ve seen countless times before. There are large chunks of the movie (specifically during the first act) where the film becomes plodding, simply because everything the narrative serves up has been done to death.
During the early parts of Blue Beetle, the film plays out like a comic book movie from the early ’00s, and this would be fine if Blue Beetle came out in the early ’00s, but it didn’t. We’re post-Iron Man, post-The Dark Knight, post-Endgame, and post-Spider-Verse now, so please don’t drag us back!
While watching the film, at no point did I think the movie was bad, but I will admit there were moments when my interest waned. This was simply because I wasn’t being challenged by the story, I was simply seeing material I’ve seen one too many times before and it was becoming tiresome.
On the plus side, from around the mid-point onwards, Blue Beetle‘s story does show signs of improvement and as the film heads into its final act it begins to fire on all cylinders. The end sequence is when the movie is at its best, and when it brings both its heart and soul, so if you can get past its shortcomings there is more fun to be had.
Outside of the above, I could nit pick minor issues here and there (including Susan Sarandon misjudging the tone and camping it up to the max as the villainous Victoria), but I really don’t want to get bogged down in any of that. As I stated earlier, Blue Beetle is largely a solid picture, and if you’re specifically after more comic book fun then you’ll definitely get that.
Was I amazed by it? No, but it creates good foundations for the future, and if Blue Beetle does manage to side-step the death of the DCEU, then I believe this property could go on to bigger and better things, very much in the same way that X-Men went on to be bettered by X-Men 2.
The key thing is, Blue Beetle doesn’t do anything particularly bad. So even if it doesn’t offer up the most original story, or it doesn’t quite catch with all audiences, it is fine and likeable.
I feel Blue Beetle has arrived at a very difficult time and this may hinder its performance, as well as its future. It is an origin story which comes at a point when the DCEU is drawing to a close; it is opening off the back of a string of underperforming DC movies (Black Adam, Shazam!: Fury of the Gods, The Flash etc); and it makes its debut in the midst of an actors’ strike, which means none of the cast can promote the picture.
All of the above mean the odds are stacked against this film, so if it comes and goes without much fanfare then be aware that outside forces are in play. But director Ángel Manuel Soto has delivered a movie that I’m sure many audiences will find perfectly enjoyable, and Xolo Maridueña impresses as Jaime Reyes.
While Blue Beetle didn’t bowl me over, I appreciate what it achieves and what it will mean for many people looking for cultural representation on screen. If you have a desire to watch the movie, then I’m sure you’ll find it enjoyable, and sometimes that’s enough.
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Thank you for taking the time to read this review on It’s A Stampede!. For more reviews, check out the recommended reads below.
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