Blue Beetle movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Blue Beetle movie review

The newest superhero movie by Warner Brothers Pictures is now playing in theaters. It was originally going to only be available on Max (formerly HBO Max), so I’m glad more people will be able to see this.

RATING: PG-13

LENGTH: 2 hours 7 minutes

MOVIE REVIEW MOM GRADE: B+

IN A NUTSHELL:

An alien scarab beetle chooses Jaime Reyes to be its symbiotic host, bestowing the recent college graduate with a suit of armor that’s capable of extraordinary powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the superhero known as Blue Beetle.

The film was directed by Angel Manuel Soto, and written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer.

THINGS I LIKED:

I first noticed Xolo Mariduena in the Netflix TV show Cobra Kai where he does a fantastic job. He’s excellent in this role and has a very bright future. I’m so happy for him and for his success. His character features a scrappy, naïve element to the Superhero genre, much like Spider-Man has done for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Other cast members include Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon, comedian George Lopez, Harvey Guillen, Belissa Escobedo, Adriana Barraza, Damian Alcazar, Becky G, Elpidia Carillo, Bruna Marquezine, and Raoul Max Trujillo. They all do a great job by clearly defining distinct characters. The grandma character is awesome and hilarious.
DC Studios CEO James Gunn ultimately decided that the Blue Beetle character would be disconnected from the DC Universe. That being said, we see the name “Lexcorp” on a tower from the Superman movies. We also see Jaime wearing a Gotham Law hoodie from the Batman movies.
Final Fantasy video game fans will get a kick out of the scene when Jaime creates the Buster Sword as his weapon of choice.
We’re introduced to Mexican culture. The Latino population will love seeing one of their own featured as a superhero! One of the Hispanic characters dies, something that the DC studio pushed for in order to make it more emotional. Angel Manuel Soto didn’t want to do that but later saw it as an opportunity to share how the Mexican culture views death.
Family is at the heart of this movie. It’s what gives the film both a soul and humor.
Humor has been one of the magical elements to the success of Marvel movies and where DC movies have failed, for the most part. This movie taps into the natural humor of a Mexican family and gives it all of the charm DC needed to level up to Marvel.
The town of Palmera City is fictitious, much like Gotham City.
Fun fact #1: Roberto Gomez, son of the original Chapulin actor Roberto Gomez Bolanos voices a radio transmission in this movie.
The film has a lot of entertaining Easter eggs to look for. For example, in Spanish, we hear someone announce on the TV that “Bruce Wayne Bought Twitter.” Ha ha I remember seeing “Sabado Gigante” on TV when I sailed through the channels. In one scene in this movie, we see it playing on the TV in the background.
This is the 14^th movie in the DC Extended Universe.
One element that I really loved was when the Blue Beetle is able to truly understand a bad guy’s unique perspective. Hurt people hurt. If only we all took the time to understand, rather than judge and react without the full story.
Keep watching during the rolling credits for another scene.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

Because of Xolo Mariduena’s work in Cobra Kai, we know that he has some serious karate skills, yet they were, sadly, underutilized in this movie. His physicality and skills could have been a real highlight. He’s not much of a superhero throughout most of the movie, but just bumbles his way through fights and, most of the time, gets beat up or tries to run away.
So much CGI.
So much screaming.
The villain isn’t very compelling.
It’s extremely cliched with wooden dialogue.
Very predictable.
Sometimes, the Blue Beetle suit’s robot capabilities work but other times it’s silent and doesn’t seem to help. I didn’t understand the inconsistencies.