3/5 stars
Not before time, Hollywood finally brings us a Latino superhero in Blue Beetle. The DC Comics character has been through several incarnations, and this film from Ángel Manuel Soto reveals the most recent: Jaime Reyes.
A Mexican college student, Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) lives with a lively family in the fictional Palmera City. It’s also the home of the shady Kord Industries, run by Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon), who is launching a RoboCop-style policing system called OMAC: One Man Army Corps.
Crucial to this is a beetle-shaped Scarab, developed by her now-absent brother Ted, which soon falls into Reyes’ hands after he crosses paths with Ted’s daughter Jenny (Bruna Marquezine), who steals it from the lab at Kord Industries.
This is where the fun starts, as the Scarab springs to life and pairs itself with Reyes, crawling inside his body.
Within seconds, he mutates into Blue Beetle, a sort of self-aware weapon system that can fly, shield and fire, protecting its host from any assailants.
Where Blue Beetle scores is with Soto’s warm, inviting portrait of Reyes’ family: his hard-working parents (Damián Alcázar, Elpidia Carrillo), conspiracy-peddling uncle (George Lopez), bratty sister (Belissa Escobedo) and gung-ho grandmother (Adriana Barraza).
Rather than bystanders, they’re roped into the story, as Jaime battles Lt. Carapax (Raoul Max Trujillo), a combat-ready veteran who is Kord’s test subject for her OMAC project. Such is their dynamic, they’d almost be better suited to a sitcom than a superhero movie.
While there are casual references to the wider DC universe (“Batman’s a fascist,” claims Reyes’ uncle, amusingly), Blue Beetle is refreshingly free of the need to fit into some grand masterplan.
But, typically, the good-vs-evil narrative isn’t exactly groundbreaking, and the film too often falls back on pat dialogue – pearls of wisdom like “everybody has a purpose” can grate.
Endless scenes of Kord’s goons being beaten, blasted, scorched and struck also start to wear thin. And the final act, concerning American imperialism, feels too lightly sketched to make any real impact.
Maridueña, however, makes for an appealing lead, and the back-and-forth with his Blue Beetle personality (voiced by Becky G) is fun.
It’s just that after a glut of superhero movies, nothing feels that original. From the symbiotic nature of Reyes’ attachment to the Scarab (Venom) to waking up naked after his transformation (Hulk) to hi-tech weapon suits (Iron Man) to evil corporations (Spider-Man), it’s a familiarity that’ll leave you slightly indifferent.
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