Blue Beetle movie review & film summary (2023) – Roger Ebert

At first blush, there are few surprising notes to “Blue Beetle.” When a baddie says, “The love you’re feeling for your loved ones makes you weak,” you recognize the hero will show that declare fallacious. The villain, Victoria (Susan Sarandon), is hardly configured; it doesn’t take a lot guessing to know they’re a metaphor for the previous and current ills of white-American imperialism. Love will prevail. Self-discovery will occur. And but, “Blue Beetle” is surprisingly politically spry; the family-bound narrative is shockingly pure; its comedy swerves away from low-hanging memeification. As a substitute, the movie cares extra about how these characters mesh. 

Whereas the Blue Beetle character dates again to 1939, the up to date, culturally particular incarnation of Jaime Reyes didn’t grace DC pages till 2006. Since then, comedian e book films have turn out to be the middle of American popular culture. However these movies have solely lately tried to the touch each nook of human existence. Marvel Studios has, for example, the “Black Panther” sequence and “Eternals,” Sony has the animated “Spider-Man,” whereas DCU has “Black Adam,” “Aquaman,” “Birds of Prey,” and, to a lesser extent, the “Justice League” movie. Whereas numerous, the DCU films have principally averted locking characters into any form of cultural specificity. “Blue Beetle” marks a pointy break from that unwritten edict. 

Directed by Ángel Manuel Soto (“Allure Metropolis Kings”), this heartwarming, crowd-pleasing comedian e book flick is much less severe and extra colourful than the tonally dour temper of many up to date superhero movies. 

A mountain of affection falls quick when Jaime (an endearing Xolo Maridueña) arrives residence from faculty to the fictional Palmera Metropolis; hugs, jokes, and real affection compose these early scenes. However all’s not effectively with the Reyes household: Jaime’s father, Alberto (Damián Alcázar), lately misplaced his auto store enterprise. Now, Jaime’s childhood house is at risk of being repossessed by Kord Business. Regardless of his pre-law diploma, Jaime struggles to land a job. He goes to work along with his youthful waggish sister Milagro (Belissa Escobedo) as assist at a resort. 

A lot of “Blue Beetle” considerations the financial disparity between the haves and have-nots, notably concerning imperialist powers. An individual like Jaime can do all the suitable issues: go to varsity, stay humble, and be nice—but his background, a poor Mexican residing within the deprived Edge Keys neighborhood, will all the time restrict his future. Nonetheless, he thinks he finds a lifeline when he steps in between the philanthropic Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine) and her ruthless aunt Victoria. Although Victoria fires him, Jenny affords him a job if he’ll meet together with her the following day at Kord headquarters. 

From there, the script by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer turns towards comfort to hurry up the narrative: Jenny makes an attempt to steal a technologically superior blue scarab earlier than Victoria makes use of its energy to develop super-soldiers; Jenny places it into Jaime’s unsuspecting palms to smuggle out; Jenny by no means checks again on the scarab—although she has Jaime’s quantity—till Jaime goes on the lookout for her. It’s a jumble of nonsensical occasions that get us to Jaime changing into symbiotically linked with the scarab and getting a technologically sharp blue swimsuit. 

Some mild prep work follows: Jaime should learn to use his new powers, sparks of romance kick up, origin tales spring forth—you recognize, the standard comedian e book beats. These are arguably the weakest parts of “Blue Beetle,” notably as a result of they’re so inarticulately composed. No matter doom Victoria offers doesn’t soar off the web page, relatively, the ever-capable Sarandon provides good beats and nuanced quirks to boost this baseline villain above the mundane. Victoria’s grunting, stoic henchman, Conrad (Raoul Max Trujillo), goes a lot of the movie as a bruising, immovable impediment till Dunnet-Alcocer crams a whole backstory within the narrative’s ultimate ten minutes. Jenny and Jaime additionally lack chemistry, partially as a result of Marquezine can’t assist however overact as she turns up each facial features to their breaking level. 

These shortcomings, nevertheless, don’t negate what works in “Blue Beetle.” For one, the script and actors mine culturally particular references to the superhero parody sequence “El Chapulín Colorado” and the telenovela “María Mercedes,” holding scenes alive and contemporary (a Vicks Vapor Rub joke left me doubled-over laughing). Its political invocations, reminiscent of an allusion to the Faculty of the Americas (a serious subject to cowl in a big-budget movie) and a harrowing scene of a raid upon the Reyes residence, whereas overwrought in its use of sluggish movement, humanizes endangered emigrant households, are daring subplots so as to add.