Title – Blue Beetle (2023) 

Director – Angel Manuel Soto (The Farm) 

Cast – Xolo Maridueña, Bruna Marquezine, George Lopez, Susan Sarandon

Plot – Recent college graduate Jaime Reyes (Maridueña) is chosen by an alien scarab to be its Earth host, gifting him great powers that are sought after by a range of nefarious organisations and individuals, putting himself, his friends and family in danger.  

“The universe has sent you a gift, and you have to figure out what to do with it”

Review by Eddie on 28/09/2023

An up and coming director, a bright young star in his first major Hollywood leading role, a move from a direct to streaming release to the wide world of cinema and bought to life in a colourful 80’s like sheen, everything appeared to be relatively promising for Blue Beetle to buck the recent DC cinematic trend of dire box office results and middling to poor critical responses but despite some oddly kind reviews, Angel Manuel Soto’s newest entry into the comic box landscape is a mostly DOA prospect that loses its charm well before the credits appear. 

A well-liked if far from commonly popular character in the DC space, Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle isn’t exactly the biggest name brand character they’ve unleashed on the movie going public and in many ways gave the struggling comic empire a chance to really go for it and deliver something unexpected on willing audiences but despite some early fun and a creative setting in the fictional location of Palmera City, Soto’s films unique flavour and eclectic cast of characters can’t sustain much momentum past the opening 30 – 40 minute mark as it falls into a rather pedestrian ride that offers very little in the way of memorable set pieces or story elements. 

In some ways sitting a little outside of the usual origin story box that has been opened countless times before in such comic book feature films, Blue Beetle doesn’t waste much time early on introducing us to Xolo Maridueña recent college graduate Jaime Reyes and his full of life family (including a scene chewing George Lopez) and before we know it we are off to Kord Industries, overseen by Susan Sarandon’s generic CEO baddie Victoria Kord, where who would’ve guessed it, Reye’s unknowingly unlocks an alien power courtesy of a mysterious alien scarab that has chosen him as its earthly host, creating the superhero of Blue Beetle in the process. 

What follows on from here is all boorishly predictable as the films Latino flavour and exuberance is overshadowed by comic book movie 101 staples that feel like they are at loggerheads with what Blue Beetle was aiming to achieve by breathing fresh life into a stale genre through its use of a culture that has so far not played major roles in the superhero space of the last few decades. 

The whole affair feels like one of those experiences that was at war within itself to become the film it wanted to be and there are times where Soto’s undoubted directional talent is on display, Maridueña’s natural charisma shines through and the films 80’s essences including The Haxan Cloak’s score and Pawel Pogorzelski’s cinematography gets things feeling like we are heading somewhere really positive and unexpected but too much of Blue Beetle feels like nothing more than a rehashed product hiding under the guise of something more, leading to another missed opportunity for DC who now has a final shot under the leadership of James Gunn to get things right. 

Final Say – 

A feature that would’ve been better off sticking to its streaming release rather than being pushed to the cinema where it has crashed and burned at the box office, Blue Beetle may be hard to hate with its heart in the right place but it’s nothing more than another stale and magic free affair DC was hoping it could disguise. 

2 gun toting grandmas out of 5