Blue Beetle

DCEU's 2023 has been at a dipping point. With the disappointment of Shazam! Fury of the Gods, in which the first one I really loved, and the somewhat decent of a Flash movie, it seems like the way the franchise is ending doesn't seem like a bang. Fortunately, Blue Beetle has already come out oh boy did it not disappoint.

Now let me preface this: it is by no means a classic nor is it groundbreaking in the superhero genre. At the end of the day, I just want to have a good time in the theaters and, for the most part, it succeeds in what I'm aiming for: a fun time.

Xolo Maridueña as the titular young Iron Man-like superhero, alter-ego Jaime Reyes, was really good. He brings a lot of energy to his performance filled with charisma, awkwardness and relatability because of his love for his family.

Speaking of family, everyone was really good playing in their respective roles but George Lopez was easily the standout because of how funny his lines and reactions are towards Jaime.

And the theme of the family is really at the center of Blue Beetle, it's really hard not to ignore it which is similar to Shazam. But as the film moves on, it does feel like everything that was done to make this possible was filled with heart by the filmmakers and knew just to be simply entertaining, hitting at all the right beats to make you laugh and cry.

The pacing was surprisingly good as to how they were able to fill in the runtime which doesn't make it feel like two hours at all as you are watching it. It's like it took two to three days in the story, if you look at the second to the third act. That was really impressive.

Visuals are great and the action sequences are really good to look at. Props to the director of photography, who by the way did Hereditary and Midsommar - yeah, let that sink in.

Of course, the film is not without its faults. It is cheesy at times, does feel generic and doesn't seem like it wants to outshine the rest of the films not just in DC but everything superhero in general. But my personal issue would have to be how they handled Susan Sarandoncs character and the nemesis of Jaime. While I get where they are going, it felt like it needed to be more compelling and not just some cartoony villains.

But by the end, I walked out of Blue Beetle thinking how good it was to see an enjoyable film with the message of family that hit me emotionally. Would I recommend the movie? Yes.

"Blue Beetle" is simply B or even C grade super hero movie with some charm along the way. I don't think it will be realistic to expect something else to be honest. The trailers showed that pretty well in my opinion.

The tone of the movie is close to that of "Shazam!", given the fact that the family got bigger role in it again, that said the story is not all that good. Not that "Shazam!" got some epic story, but I think it was one idea better.

The cast is fine, maybe the best part of the movie is the family dynamic, except when they lean too much to the melodrama side. Xolo Maridueña as Jaime/Blue Beetle and George Lopez are the standouts no doubt.

The villain is everything you ca expect from B grade super hero movie, from the introduction, through his motivation, the fights and the conclusion is nothing particularly memorable.

I must say the suit looks great when is practical and not CGI all over the place. There are some cool fight scenes with our protagonist, most of which are shown in the trailers, which is kinda of a shame.

There are plenty of jokes in the movie, but for me, most of them doesn't land. I mean they are too childish. I guess the younger auditory will laugh out hard, but me and my cinema crowd were silent most of the time. Of course there were funny moments, but don't expect "Deadpool" level laughs if you are a bit older.

The movie is not bad, but it's kinda cringe, predictable and given the fact that the audience know this genre already, they expect something more clever, which sadly to report "Blue Beetle" is not.

There are already enough talks about the future of this character, is it part of the DCEU or DCU, will there be a sequel, or the character will transfer in the newly formed universe? If you ask me, there will not be a second movie, because this one will bomb hard, also, I'm not sure how you can do clean slate without the bagage of the previous universe, when you always lean to what was, not what it can be. In other words there is always a chance to see Blue Beetle again, but who will portray it and will the origin story be 1:1 identical is something I'm not sure about and I don't hold my breath for it.

In conclusion the movie is "okay", got its moments, but there is nothing really memorable, also there are two credit scenes, which are fine I guess.

Empty, full of cliches, you cannot tolerate it. It is one of the worst productions I have seen in my whole life. What a waste of time. Keep away! The cast is bad, the script is worse.. The characters are joke and intolerable.. I have not written a comment in IMDb for more than five years but I should write this for anyone who thinks watching this thing. Sorry but I cannot call it a movie.. I will not be fair for good ones produced with hardwork. I do not recommend anyone to spend their time watching it. You can do anything else and believe me it will be spending quality time compared to watching this movie.

Anyone who follows DC or even comics as a whole, knows how promising of a character Blue Beetle is in the comics-verse. Guy has been a featuring member of Teen Titans for decades, holding his own as one of the coolest drawn characters that has a very interesting backstory regarding an alien symbiote. The character had immense potential to be turned into a promising live-action film-series out of it. And frankly speaking, I think the cast choice was good as well - they could've pulled off the hype. The only thing that ruined this film, however, is the writing. It's terrible - felt so rushed and low-depth at some points that you'd feel like pausing to not continue watching anymore. CGI was bad for some parts too, but that can still be overlooked as most of it gets the job done quite well. But the writing, man, it's awful. DCU won't have much to build on if they continue doing such pathetic job at writing stories like this.

As a Latino myself, I was looking forward to this film but, I was unfortunately disappointed. I was excited to hear that we had a superhero movie starring a Latino cast coming into the works but, it was executed poorly. There are times when they were trying too hard to portray a Latino family, a bit exaggerated and tried too hard to be funny. The acting from a few of the cast was fine, some of it felt forced. It seems like they didn't put as much heart into this film as they would a Batman film. With some work, this could've been a better viewing experience. Xolo was a great casting choice but could use a bit of work on some of his execution to the character.