Blue Beetle

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.

For what it's worth, this is not an origin story yet is designed to be one, atleast for the main lead. After graduation, Jaime Reyes returns back to his family who are near bankrupt and on the verge to lose their home. Desperate to save the house, he looks for a job and lands at Kord Tower, after an invitation from Jenny Kord. Meanwhile, Kord Industries CEO Victoria Kord, is a greedy woman who wants to control an alien species Scarab for it's technological power, to create a deadly weapon. Jenny's attempt to steal this Scarab leads to Jaime getting hold of it and eventually becoming the host. What follows is, Jaime realizing his purpose and acknowledging his connection with Scarab.

Blue Beetle clearly has arrived a decade late, which is also what works in it's favour. There is no pressure of building in/adding on to the DC universe. All it aims for, is to be a simple silly fun entertainer, going over the top at every opportunity and yet succeed in entertaining. This is simply not the kind of film one should take seriously. The humor is hit and miss, thankfully the emotions work well. The Latino superhero does leave a lasting impression. There is not much about the Scarabs so the film directly focuses on Reyes becoming the new Blue Beetle while casually dropping the fact that there were others before.

Susan Sarandon's Victoria isn't evil enough whereas her own weapon Carapax isn't menacing enough and are barely serviceable. What does work is the goofiness of the Reyes family and right dose of father-son dynamic, because what's a DC superhero without that? The action set pieces are generic and like I said, the film still delivers on providing basic harmless entertainment. The post credit scene does set it up for a standalone sequel without burdening itself from being part of DCU's planned future.

It's sad, not unexpected, to say that it's a chore, as you've seen the story told here a thousand times before, no surprises or things new, this will really make you blue, all in all more than two hours, that will bore you through and through. The CGI is not that good, and it will not make you marvel, plus the story is predictable, and I might suggest - quite larval, the acting's amateur, so is the dialogue and score, it's a challenge after watching to applaud and not ignore.

If we're really unlucky they'll make another one that will take us to places increasingly common in the world of Superhero desperation.

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.

I found Blue Beetle as the most basic teenage superhero origins story that are no longer special, and it leaves me no impress whatsoever because we all already way too familiar with this type of story, it's predictable and literally nothing new, it's bland and the action was boring, my face was literally straight the whole time, and the villain was also meh, what i like about Blue Beetle was the family dynamic that's definitely there, and the family itself as their own was good enough, Bruna Markuezine was good, including Xolo Maridueña himself was good and just if his story wasn't the same like most of teenage superhero origins story, Blue Beetle would've been something else because what i do like again was some of the cinematography, editing, the Blue Beetle suit was amazing and i really love it, and the special effects for the most part was good, but again overall i just can't found something new in terms of story, and it would've been just an ok movie but it's too bad that the action was boring and the comedy also didn't work, the villain wasn't that good, so it is what it is unfortunately, Blue Beetle is not a bad movie, it's a basic teenage superhero origins that fills with ok performances but a predictable and unoriginal story and also boring action and uninteresting villain.