Yahoo Movies Blue Beetle is an entertaining debut for DC's newest superhero
DC is not exactly having the best 2023, with two high-profile box-office flops released so far in Shazam! Fury of the Gods ($134 million worldwide) and The Flash ($269 million worldwide), so hopes aren't exactly high for Blue Beetle.
Despite the film's notable position as the first live-action superhero movie with a Latino lead, the apathy of DC fans right now is tied to the fact we know a new universe reset is starting in 2025. The fear is that this will extend to Blue Beetle, limiting the movie before it's even really had a chance.
There are positives for Blue Beetle though. For one, it was planned for a streaming debut but changed to a cinema release – so DC is confident in it. Second, and arguably most importantly, new DC boss James Gunn has called the hero the "first DCU character".
So there is a future for Cobra Kai star Xolo Maridueña's DC superhero and, fortunately, the entertaining Blue Beetle leaves you wanting to see more – even if it can't help suffering from familiar superhero issues.
Blue Beetle's story is very much Origin Story 101. Jaime Reyes (Maridueña) comes back home from college searching for his purpose in life when he finds himself in possession of an ancient alien relic, the Scarab.
The Scarab then chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, giving Jaime a powerful suit of armour and extraordinary powers and transforming him into the superhero Blue Beetle. As ever, some nefarious people want to get their hands on it, leading Jaime into a fight to protect those he loves most.
Along the way there's the usual quotes about Jaime having to "accept your destiny" and regular exposition dumps, so there's nothing really in Blue Beetle that will surprise you. But the movie does have one distinctive twist on the well-worn origin tale: Jaime's family.
Where typically superhero movies have the family in the dark (Shazam! Fury of the Gods gets about the only pass here), Jaime's family are actively involved from the get-go. They're there when Jaime first transforms into Blue Beetle, here framed by director Ángel Manuel Soto as a painful body-horror rather than a euphoric change, and they play an active role in Jaime's story.
Sure, they eventually become the target of the villainous Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon), but they're not in the movie just to be rescued. The stand-outs are George Lopez as Jaime's paranoid uncle Rudy and Adriana Barraza as Jaime's Nana who ends up stealing the final act. As a collective too, they're a joy to spend time with.
If the emotional arc between Jaime and his father Alberto (Damián Alcázar) is a tad formulaic, it works because Soto and writer Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer spend the time making the family characters in their own right. It's just a shame that Blue Beetle needs to add in the superhero stuff too.
As with the story, there's nothing particularly wrong with the superhero elements; it's just that there's nothing particularly new about it either. Thankfully, Blue Beetle never becomes about saving the world, but equally the set pieces are mostly just two powerful people in suits bashing each other in murky night-time settings.
They're lacking in the invention needed to make them stand out from what we've seen before. A bug ship used by Jaime's family that features a unique stealth mode highlights the playfulness missing elsewhere, and it's telling that Nana gets the most entertaining 'hero moment' over Jaime himself.
Blue Beetle also suffers from another common superhero issue with its underdeveloped and bland villain. Victoria is a retread of Iron Man's Obadiah Stone, and just wants to use the Scarab for her own financial gain. Susan Sarandon is never menacing enough to make her interesting.
Where the movie is more successful is rooting itself in Latin culture, both in the references and the topical subject matter. It might not be subtle and the superhero elements get in the way of deeper exploration of its societal themes, but at least Blue Beetle's generic story is told with a specific, unique viewpoint.
Ultimately, Blue Beetle achieves what a superhero origin story should, despite its familiar flaws. You'll want to see more of Jaime Reyes in the new DC Universe going forward, but he also better make sure to bring his family along for the ride too.
Blue Beetle is out now in cinemas.
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