Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-fi
In a world where DC and Marvel dominate the superhero movie genre, it has become difficult for movie directors to create original films to impress audiences, and Blue Beetle is just another failed attempt.
While some of the acting performances and action scenes are decent, the story and conflict of the movie was predictable and uninteresting.
The story follows Jaime Reyes (played by Xolo Maridueña) who returns home after graduating, only to find his family on the brink of losing their home. Reyes then finds himself in possession of an alien scarab that attaches itself to him and turns him into the Blue Beetle, a hero with superhuman strength, speed and durability.
Reyes uses his powers to fight Victoria Kord (played by Susan Sarandon) who wants the powers for herself.
The whole movie has a very strong ‘family is important’ storyline and watching the Reyes family interact and bond with each other as they deal with the various situations is refreshing and gave the film a realistic and relatable feel.
Maridueña and George Lopez, who plays Uncle Rudy are the stars of the film, both together and individually. The movie also did well with Latino and Mexican representation, with most of the dialogue being in Spanish, with subtitles.
The film also handles emotional scenes quite well.
Despite the lack of depth where the plot is concerned, the audience is able to feel the pain the Reyes family goes through.
Unfortunately, the bad outweighs the good. Each scene is predictable and plays out exactly how one would expect.
The jokes also fall flat, and even Maridueña’s quirkiness goes unnoticed. His character carries far too many similarities to Spiderman, while his mentor resembles Ironman.
There are many decisions made that don’t make sense. For example, Reyes doesn’t believe in killing his enemies, so we watch a superhero with special powers and strength, engage in punching fights with the bad guys. This feels like a missed opportunity to show what the superhero can do.
For those who are familiar with superhero movies, this one is worth missing out on. Blue Beetle is available for viewing on Max (formerly HBO MAX).
