THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER-FREE.
by Jarrod Jones. It may tick off certain comic readers to point this out, but Blue Beetle is a second-stringer in the DC superhero pantheon, warming the bench alongside the likes of The Atom and Metamorpho the Element Man. Given the perpetual state of upheaval in the DC cinematic universe, or whatever we’re about to call it next, he comes off more like a pinch-hitter in his film debut, Blue Beetle, the often cute new cape movie from Charm City Kings director Ángel Manuel Soto.
That’s not such an insult these days; remember, Marvel Studios made some hay with a former B-lister who went by the pseudonym Iron Man once upon a time. Now, the MCU lives in the shadow of Ol’ Shellhead, plumbing its comic archives in pursuit of that Next Big Thing to mixed results.
Blue Beetle even shares DNA with Jon Favreau’s Iron Man in some respects. It has a hulking villain who functions as the similarly powered yet diametrically hued opposite of our charming hero, not dissimilar to Jeff Bridges’ Iron Monger (Raoul Max Trujillo, as Conrad Carapax). There’s also a corporate-minded girlfriend who can kick ass just fine on her own, thank you very much (Bruna Marquezine, as Jenny Kord, DC’s more assertive response to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts).
There are other comparisons, but they concern the structure of Soto’s film more than anything else. For now, consider DC’s new kid on the block, Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña), as the anti-Tony Stark, at least as far as the economic spectrum is concerned. Jaime, fresh from college graduation (he’s pre-law), returns home to his family to find them threatened by eviction courtesy of the racist and cruel philanthrotrix Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon), who — when she isn’t putting together a for-profit death army — intends on bulldozing their community because gentrification, one of the film’s many stabs at provocative political commentary.
An aside: the garish corpo-metropolis beyond their provincial home, a fictional burg called Palmera City, looks like a proto-cyberpunk vision of Rockstar’s Vice City, where Kord Industries, LexCorp, and Ally Financial dot its skyline with hideous moving logos. Also, Victoria is the disgruntled sister of Ted, who comic dorks like me will recognize as DC’s second Blue Beetle. Ted’s out of the picture, at least for now.
Back to Jaime. He earns some quick cash by working for Victoria’s resort hotel only to blunder into a family dispute between Jenny and her aunt Vickie, triggering a series of events that place the Kord-owned Scarab (voiced by Becky G) in his, erm, intimate possession. (When Jaime first bonds with the extraterrestrial McGuffin, it fuses to his spine and begins talking to his mind, a far too rare example of freaky/fun cosmic horror.) In fact, Jaime kinda blunders into his superheroic fate pretty early into the film, which I appreciated. A lot of these perfunctory superhero jobs take too long to get to the point. Blue Beetle puts Jaime in his alien scarab suit before the first half-hour is out. He hovers over planet Earth and takes it mostly in stride. Works for me.
With a stage set like this, you might think you know where this is going next. And you’d be right on the money. Blue Beetle doesn’t do anything particularly novel with the material, but it hits its Iron Man notes pretty well. At first, Jaime doesn’t want the responsibility of the scarab. He flails under its propulsive might. Then he forms a begrudging appreciation for it. Some midtown traffic gets tossed around, and Vickie shows harsher colors. Before long, Jaime and the Scarab share a symbiotic relationship, though the creepiness of their bonding will have to keep for the sequel, should it ever come. (My IMAX preview screening of Blue Beetle was almost empty, something I haven’t experienced in some time.)
The big draw of Blue Beetle that makes it worth seeing is Jaime’s core family unit. Jaime’s grandmother (Adriana Barraza), for instance, is a pleasant elder who deliberately obscures fathoms of intriguing history. Maybe more annoyingly, George Lopez sports a mullet and a complicated goatee and calls Batman a fascist (in keeping with Zack Snyder’s vision of the character, I’m guessing). Jaime even has some heartstring-tugging interactions with his ailing father (Damián Alcázar) that give this movie some emotional, if obvious, heft.
It has come to pass that the Batmen and Supermen (and even the Flashes) from DC’s recent cinematic offerings are lesser draws than they used to be. If Jaime Reyes’ superhero antics serve any purpose — Maridueña, who is otherwise suitable for the role, perhaps has too much weight to carry — it’s to offer a familiar burst of late-summer diversion before DC gets serious about its movie galaxy again in a few years with James Gunn’s Superman Legacy. Heck, I hear Metamorpho will have a role in that movie. The B-Listers have found their moment.
5.5 out of 10
Blue Beetle is in wide release now.
Directed by Ángel Manuel Soto.
Written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer.
Cinematography by Pawel Pogorzelski.
Starring Xolo Maridueña, Bruna Marquezine, Adriana Barraza, Damián Alcázar, Raoul Max Trujillo, Susan Sarandon, and George Lopez.
Produced by John Rickard and Zev Foreman.
Rated PG-13 for DC-brand nudity. (Now a thing!)
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