Blue Beetle

If you’ve seen more than — let’s say — three superhero movies in your life, then Blue Beetle is going to feel familiar. The plot liberally borrows from Spy Kids 3-D, Iron Man, Spider-Man: Homecoming and a host of other films. A young man stumbles upon an alien artifact that gives him extraordinary abilities. An evil corporation wants to use the relic for sinister purposes. That sounds like the blueprint for a generic superhero story, right? Now you understand my frustration with this picture.

Of course, a simple premise can be the springboard for an enjoyable tale. It’s the details that matter. Blue Beetle does manage to offer a captivating family dynamic. Protagonist Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) is the first member of his family to graduate college. He returns to his hometown to find that his extended clan faces financial difficulties. They may lose their home. The household includes Uncle Rudy (George Lopez), sister Milagro (Belissa Escobedo), grandmother Nana (Adriana Barraza), father Alberto (Damián Alcázar), and mother Rocio (Elpidia Carrillo). The nods to Latino culture include predictable things like eating tacos and saying “mijo.” It’s embarrassingly on the nose in those parts. Thankfully, some references go deeper, like the mention of Vicks VapoRub and a claymation version of Mexican superhero El Chapulín Colorado. Rising rent and gentrification plague their community. The solidarity of family is the most interesting part of Blue Beetle.

Unfortunately, the central plot is hackneyed and uninspiring. The boilerplate screenplay was written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer (Miss Bala) and directed by Ángel Manuel Soto. The evil CEO Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon) of Kord Industries also pursues the aforementioned object. She wishes to possess the Scarab and use its powers to create an army of superhumans. Victoria’s test subject is a bodyguard named Ignacio Carapax (Raoul Max Trujillo). The Scarab is sentient, and to Victoria’s dismay, it chooses Jaime Reyes. He becomes Blue Beetle, imbuing him with a suit of armor that gives him supernatural abilities. Now, she must somehow extract it from him. Jaime is also assisted by Victoria’s beautiful niece (and inevitable love interest) Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine). Jenny does not see eye to eye with her aunt.

A good superhero yarn is only as good as its villain. Blue Beetle fails as hard in this area as I’ve seen. Portraying this antagonist is far from Susan Sarandon’s finest hour. I have a lot of respect for the actress. Atlantic City, Thelma & Louise, Bull Durham, Dead Man Walking, Lorenzo’s Oil, and many other films exemplify her talent. So, I take no pleasure in saying that she gives the absolute worst performance of her career. It is a wide-eyed, dizzy exhibition that makes the exaggerated facial displays from the silent era seem restrained by comparison. At least those performances from the 1920s seemed present — that is, reacting in the moment. Her character appears to be performing in a separate room, wholly disconnected from any of the actors around her. It is a shockingly bad depiction. Hopefully, she paid off the mortgage from one of her houses with the money she earned.

The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) is a mediocre franchise.    There once was a time that even when the story came up short, you could at least count on the special effects to be enjoyable. But the CGI here is a dull and ugly muddle of computer graphics. To wit, yet another movie showcases a bus being split in half. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness presented the exact same thing. Curiously, not one rider is standing in the middle, so there are no injuries. The development is completely disconnected from reality. The Suicide Squad (2021) is the last time I enthusiastically recommended one of the installments in this so-called universe.    Blue Beetle is now the 4th middling release in a row (Black Adam, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, and The Flash are the others).

Even the filmmakers have acknowledged things are not good. The DCEU is currently transitioning to a new vision under James Gunn and Peter Safran’s leadership. Nevertheless, the producers bafflingly spent $104 million to make this derivative pastiche. Blue Beetle was initially set for streaming on MAX but was capriciously changed to theatrical distribution. That last-minute decision makes no sense in retrospect. This account barely rises to the proficiency of what I’d deem worthy of a wide release. The CW network has done very well with shows based on DC Comics superhero characters. This feels more like a serviceable TV pilot cobbled together from well-worn ideas you’ve seen before.

08-21-23