Blue Beetle (2023) Review!!

Synopsis – An alien scarab chooses college graduate Jaime Reyes to be its symbiotic host, bestowing the teenager with a suit of armor that’s capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the superhero known as Blue Beetle.

My Take – With Black Adam (2022), Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) and The Flash (2023) turning out to be massive box disappointments, it sure is disheartening to see the DCEU go out with such a whimper, before the franchise gets the intended reboot with Superman: Legacy (2025).

Nevertheless, being a fan of the Blue Beetle character, particularly more due to his appearance in the Young Justice series, I kept a spark of hope alive and my excitement in check to witness Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski‘s creation come alive on the big screen. And fortunately, I was not left disappointed.

Yes, if like most you too are feeling the “super hero fatigue” this film won’t help you revert back, but it sure does deserve a chance as writer Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer and director Ángel Manuel Soto sure do have some surprises and tricks up their sleeves.

Originally intended to go straight to the streaming service HBO Max, this latest DC feature is a charming romp that is front loaded with visual fireworks, delivering the action and comic book chassis expected from a superhero flick. However, it is the constant nods to the Latin American experience, and the likable interplay between its down-to-earth characters that gives the film a huge heart.

Sure, there are some typical exposition dumps for the genre here, but the way it incorporates Latin culture to show the true sense of community and family, it succeeds in achieving what it was clearly aiming for: to launch the first ever Hispanic big screen super hero.

While current signs are clearly pointing at another DC flop financially, it will at least go down in history as one of the better DC heroes debuts, especially in comparison to other popular characters.

The story follows Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña), a young Gotham law school graduate who has just returned to his hometown in the Edge Keys of Palmera City. Unfortunately, while Jaime graduated from college with a pre-law degree, his family, due to their irregular financial conditions and gentrification, have found themselves in a position to lose their house.

Feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders, Jaime joins his sister, Milagro (Belissa Escobedo) in working at a low-level job at the mansion of Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon), the co-founder and CEO of Kord Industries, one of the world’s leading industrial corporations, which also deals in weapons. However, when a chance meeting with one of the company’s young board members, Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine), opens up an opportunity for a better position, he takes it.

Unknowingly this decision instead sees Jaime becomes welded to a mysterious, powerful alien piece of biotechnology called the Scarab, which in actuality is a sentient alien being named Khaji Da (voiced by Becky G) which has chosen him as its new host.

Unfortunately, this also makes him a target for Victoria Kord who is willing to do anything to regain possession of the Scarab to power her OMAC weapons project, including unleashing Ignacio Carapax (Raoul Max Trujillo), her cyborg henchman, on Jaime’s family. Forcing Jaime to use this incredible new powers, which comprises of the ability to form polymorphic weaponry on demand, to defend his loved ones and himself.

This one is an origin story through and through. All it aims for, is to be a simple silly fun entertainer, going over the top at every opportunity and yet succeeds in entertaining. Fast, funny, and fervently earnest, the Ángel Manuel Soto directorial stands out in an increasingly overcrowded field of superhero films.

Clocking in a little over two hours, the pacing is snappy enough that it never overstays its welcome, and while it’s not entirely unpredictable, the tale of Jaime Reyes and the sentient outer-space scarab who’s symbiotically linked to him avoids becoming an eye-rolling origin-story cliché by remaining deeply empathetic toward its ensemble.

Agreed, in broader terms, there really isn’t much unique here, however, it does make one distinct decision that makes it stand tall, it the decision to bring Jaime’s family along for the ride. Usually in these stories, families exist to be left behind, victimized or avenged, while the chosen hero/heroine hogs the spotlight. But that is not the case here.

For the most part, they provide sidekick-comedy relief and complement Jaime’s moralistic rigidity with some cheeky shading. Most significantly, they also give the film its thoroughly un-cynical soul. Blue Beetle is a title that can be claimed by the Reyes clan as a whole, rather than just Jaime himself, in a very direct and active way. It points to the necessity of representation both in front of and behind the camera as director Soto has crafted a community that feels authentic rather than pandering.

Backed by spiraling CG visuals and sinewy camera movement, the film, unlike most DC features, is quite colorful; even if most scenes take place at night, it makes the hero’s neon armor stand out. And of course, the suit is gorgeous, somehow treading the razor-thin line between technological and organic, and its accuracy to the comics will surely please Blue Beetle fans like myself.

Jaime’s first transformation into the Blue Beetle is genuinely horrifying. Director Maridueña manages to convey the pain of his fusion as the sentient suit flings him throughout his house. The screams of the Reyes family are played for laughs but there is a visceral disgust in their reaction, at one point comparing the transformation to a demonic possession.

The glimpse we get of suits belonging to former Beetles Dan Garrett and Ted Kord perfectly embody the campy heroes of the 20th century without looking too patently ridiculous. The famous Bug Ship, too, reads as fully functional and practically made while simultaneously staying true to the silliness of Blue Beetle’s previous incarnations.

It’s a universe where things like Metropolis, Superman, and Batman exist. These characters are mentioned, but the story is not focused on extended cameos and subplots that overburden the plot. It’s rather refreshing how the film embraces comic book world-building without bogging down the experience with references, cameos, and the like.

Performance wise, Xolo Maridueña is a delightful lead and brings a lot of energy to his performance filled with charisma, awkwardness and relatability because of his love for his family. Adriana Barraza, George Lopez, Belissa Escobedo, Elpidia Carrillo and Damián Alcázar share excellent chemistry and feels like a real family, loudly affectionate and fiercely protective.

Bruna Marquezine and Harvey Guillén are decent in their roles, while Susan Sarandon and Raul Max Trujillo do whatever they can with their not particularly interesting characters. On the whole, ‘Blue Beetle’ is one of the better DC superhero films with an authentic family dynamic at its heart.