This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Blue Beetle is the unofficial ending of the old DC Cinematic Universe and the beginning of the new, James Gunn led DCU. It serves as the origin story of Jaime Reyes (played by Xolo Maridueña) as he is chosen by an alien scarab to become a hero. Surrounded by his family, he has to decide if he is up for the responsibility.
The discourse around this movie was seemingly quite negative coming in. I think most people just had sour tastes in their mouths from Shazam!, Black Adam, and other DC superhero movies, or just liked to crap on DC as a whole. But Blue Beetle stands out as a legitimately good superhero movie.
The best thing about this movie is it feels like a return to the norm for superhero movies. It’s pretty funny and it has some pretty decent action choreography. It isn’t revolutionary and won’t shake your core like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 or Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, but it hits on all of its emotional beats that elevate it beyond films like the Shazam! Fury of the Gods or Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania of the world. I truly appreciated how this movie just focused on telling a good story and not trying to build out its universe or any future stories.
It helps that Xolo Maridueña is incredibly charismatic in the lead role. From what I understand of the character, he needs to be similar to Spiderman in the sense that they are fun, sarcastic, and energetic, and he did it. It is a shame that the studios aren’t willing to negotiate in good faith with the WGA and SAG because he would’ve crushed a red carpet.
The surrounding cast, led by George Lopez, was also pretty good. Lopez had a lot of involvement in the story and was able to be as funny as you’d expect while being emotional as ever. Bruna Marquezine and Belissa Escobedo held their own and worked well off of Maridueña. Susan Sarandon plays a pretty stereotypical corporate antagonist which is fine with me. Not every villain in a comic book movie needs to be well-rounded and understandable. Sometimes they can just be villains.
Final Thoughts
I don’t have much bad to say about Blue Beetle, to be honest. There are some fight sequences that are kind of hard to follow in the dark and there are a couple of moments with bad CGI, but I had a lot of fun watching this. The suit looked amazing and even when Maridueña wasn’t in the suit, I was invested in his screen time. I don’t care what the box office numbers look like, I would want to see more of Blue Beetle in James Gunn’s DCU. It’s an aggressive rating but I rate based on enjoyment and I had a lot of fun with this one.
