I’ve been liking a lot of DC’s latest slate where I don’t think I’m supposed to 😬 I thought Black Adam was fun, and original enough, where finding originality among a gluttony of superhero movies is very tough these days. After DC announced that they would be completely rebooting their catalogue, I felt the ping that framed this year’s movies as irrelevant, like a lot of people did; but catching up with Shazam! Fury of the Gods, I found it to be simple and highly enjoyable as well. I also cherish contentious content like Wonder Woman 1984, and Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, and nearly feel obligated to write that in every review I can too 😁 – although, these are the movies that contributed to DC feeling like they were in a pickle in the first place. Therefore, Blue Beetle promises to be the last original origin endeavour for the DCEU before James Gunn and a new wave of thinking comes through. I won’t miss this opportunity to squeeze the last bit of juice out of what I have perceived as a late-game resurgence for the DCEU, after a more than shaky first half. Let’s get busy!
Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) returns home to an economically divided Palmera City, as the first in his family to achieve a college degree. But finding sturdy footing in the workforce proves difficult, until a chance encounter with Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine), the disgruntled niece of Kord Industries’ power-hungry CEO Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon), puts Jaime in line for an astronomical change. Jaime is tasked with hiding the Scarab, an ancient archaeological discovery, but when the Scarab becomes sentient, it fuses itself with Jaime’s body to create a symbiotic relationship, to be known together as the superpowered Blue Beetle. Ángel Manuel Soto is at the helm of this bad boy!
This movie reminded me of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in that while it provides very murky to lackadaisical character foundations, I found merit when I DIYed it myself. Take Victoria Kord for example – I like thinking Victoria is searching for the beetle as a ‘f—k you!’ to Jenny’s father, since he got the company when Victoria’s husband passed away, and could never find it for himself. The Scarab means nothing to her but a matter of pride, and the fact that she can use it for military applications to make a boatload of money at the backend, is a secondary consideration. Every time Kord Industries was shown in video, could it be any more obvious they are the bad guys? Creating a device with the objective of mind-control, that turns participants into their own police force, is a horrendous idea, and this movie is not even trying to pretend that Victora is passing off the innovation for beneficial purposes 😕
I also thought of an exciting plot twist in the moment, and it never stopped being better than the actual ending we got. Why not have Victoria kill the henchman, Ignacio Carapax (Raoul Max Trujillo), in the moment he thinks he’s about to get his Scarab upgrade? It’s obvious that Ignacio holds some sort of resentment by the way he keeps clutching his locket, and it would just make Victoria a more callous and intelligent antagonist if she offed him before he gets the chance to turn on her. Just as Ignacio said to Jaime earlier, ‘you should’ve killed me when you had the chance”, Victoria could coldly tell Ignacio, “I’m killing you while I have the chance”, chuckling at the thought of her battered guard believing she would actually make him into an uncontrollable superweapon. This also gives Jaime, who is chained up watching all this, resolution to the idea that holding on to anger and resentment, for the recent actions that have led to his own father’s heart attack, can blind you into making deals and choices that will ultimately lead to your demise. It’s a three-pronged stronger story point, if I do say so myself, as it makes Victoria a more cognizant villain (reminding me of Daredevil’s Kingpin, really), and it wraps up Jaime’s vengeful story arch in a different and more efficient way than how Tom Holland’s Spider-Man learnt the same lesson in Spider-Man: No Way Home… And it saves us from the generic “Rock ’Em Sock ‘Em” Blue v Red (Beetle) CGI fest that results from Ignacio still being alive, and needing to be stopped. I don’t particularly despise a big battle at the end of a film, but it’s dependent on the stakes, and while Victoria still had an army to throw at Jaime – with Scarab-powered properties too, if the movie wanted to go there – the latter would’ve been enough. As it is, Blue Beetle is about to kill Ignacio until his robotics stop him, and shows Jaime that Ignacio has a tragic past, so Jaime lets him back up – but nothing in that moment means that Ignacio no longer wants to kill Jaime, like he’s been trying to do for the entire movie, so it doesn’t make sense; lazy rationale to end the fight scene, I see. Then Ignacio drags Victoria to her death while also walking towards a vision of his mother – and I’ve never seen a character both embrace heaven while also knowingly, murderously, sending an enemy to hell; those two actions really contradict for me, and perhaps any rational persons out there as well. From my proposed diverging point, I don’t really know how I would’ve ended it, but perhaps Victoria escapes while her army is destroyed, and Jaime doesn’t really know if Jenny survived the rockslide or not – because villains don’t always have to die, and you can win the day without everything being resolved. I thought Susan Sarandon was pretty cool, but all this blabber is just a long-winded way for me to say that I thought the third act was rough, the villains ended up being pretty awful, and I wish they were better.
I think the best scene of the movie is Alberto’s death (Damián Alcázar), and I liked when Blue Beetle showed up at the house because it solidified to me that this movie’s stakes were going to be small scale. What I mean is, Blue Beetle isn’t tasked with saving the city or the universe, but just his close and personal family from the pressures of a ruthless corporation. Jenny’s speech about her rich childhood mansion being empty while Jaime’s small home was filled with love, was simple and affective, and I liked the way the plot built upon Jenny truly underhandedly damning Jaime with the Blue Beetle curse; and her guilt, along with the Reyes family’s blame, leads to her working with the family, and creating a bond. In the end, Jenny is not just the love-interest Jaime brings into the fold, for the family and Jenny already share their own admirations, which is nice.
George Lopez is the best part of the movie, and I didn’t expect to be writing that. I only know the guy as a talk show host during the era of the Conan O’Brien upheaval, and sometimes starry comic relief can do their own thing, not really aligning with the movie correctly; but Lopez is an asset, used rather well, as Uncle Rudy. The Reyes family is all well-defined – I’m a sucker for a bad-ass grandma, and Jaime’s sister Milagro (Belissa Escobedo) is punchy, but also an idiot, right? I’m not sure if the movie is aware of that… 🤔 The movie’s setup is that the Reyes children want to save the family home, but Milagro risks her job by using the luxurious toilet, and demands Jaime open the burger box to peek inside when Jaime has been given clear instruction not to…? She gave me vibes of Jena Malone from The Hunger Games – a wit with a screw loose, but the movie barely addresses it. And just on this, I think the movie might’ve been better framing the Reyes eviction troubles in a different way – Milagro tells Jaime at lunch that the rent on their childhood home has surpassed the family’s budget, and maybe Jaime’s attitude could be more blasé, as he sees himself making big money soon, so the family will be moving on up soon anyway. Then, when that doesn’t go to plan, it’s only through his interaction with Jenny that he starts to look back and cherish the family memories and home he already has. I had to laugh at the end, while the Reyes’ are forlorn because the house is destroyed; sure, it’s sad, but as far as they knew at that stage, they were still getting evicted – so it’s the landlord’s problem, really.
I’m yet to watch Ms. Marvel on Disney+, so this is my first venture with a multicultural family along on the superhero ride, and I wonder how they compare. Put briefly, I think this movie had great potential, but confusing character motivations lead me to conclude that this movie is creatively shallow; a hotpot of so many superhero movies that have come before, without actually understanding what made the inspiration monumental. Iron Man, Spider-Man, Venom, The Flash – Black Panther with the plain to talk to dead fathers, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse for the spunky graffiti tag on the old rocket ship, and Guardians of the Galaxy, because you need a sick soundtrack on the speakers when your ship makes an entrance. I thought Xolo Maridueña’s Jaime captured the earnestness of a likeable hero, whilst not the charm of any of our Peter Parkers. This movie definitely didn’t know what to make of the scene where Jaime first transforms into the Blue Beetle, because that scene is horrific – the dude literally looks like he’s being charred to death from the inside out, while his family can only watch on helpless, and the movie plays it with the tone of a standard superhero spectacle instead of something from the worst gore film. I can only imagine what ideas Sam Raimi would’ve had running through his mind for creating the same moment, given his brilliant turn with the Doc Ock arms in Spider-Man 2. And, therefore, I’m sorry, Blue Beetle – enjoy your moment in the spotlight while you’ve got it, because I reckon by this time next year, I’ll have forgot you existed. A similar rating to The Flash incoming, but I like this movie slightly more for trying to generate its own thing.
2.5
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