BLUE BEETLE 2023 REVIEW

I’m tired..

I don’t know how else to start this review. I wish I walked out feeling some sort of emotion worth writing onto this digital paper, but the only thought I have is that I am tired.

I have loved superheroes ever since I was a child. The cartoons brought me in, but it was the well made films that taught me why they are the great modern myths. I don’t care how overhyped it may be, I will always hold Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man in high regard. I would collect comic books around 12-13 years old, and fast forward to now, I would have written some stories of my own in comic book form. I simply love the potential of storytelling through that medium, and collaborating with artists to bring it all to life.

Throughout those years, I saw the early 2000’s Genesis of superhero films (some good, some awful), the MCU’S renaissance in the 2010’s, and now we are in the Dark Age of 2020’s. It felt like a long epic, yet it all went to doo doo feces so quickly. Was it COVID’S fault? Was this all the product of overworked writers finally putting their foot down against the money fiending studios who rely on the fans to mindlessly consume products? Is the modern superhero story incapable of being more than commercials for the next phase of films?

We have seen the exceptions to that choke holding mold this year. Across The Spider Verse proved that these films can be art. Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 proved that these films can still tug on your heart strings while being thought provoking. So where the hell does Blue Beetle fall in place??

It falls right down the middle, and it made me feel so damn tired watching it all play out in the same old way.

For a Warner Bros DC film, it’s fine, certainly better than the diarrhea bomb that was Flash 2023. However, it only gets a pass for being as generic as possible. From the plucky reluctant hero to the mustache twirling villain who wants to make an army of super soldiers (except this time it’s a raging racist Karen), it’s all been done before, and much better. It’s a shame that a character who is essentially a cross between Iron Man and the Venom symbiote ends up being less interesting than both.

The one theme that's worth a damn is the importance of family (despite being heavy handed). Most superheroes are the lone wolves fighting for truth, justice and the American way, but Jaime Reyes simply wants to protect his family, his moral compass. This makes him feel more real and grounded, and it’s quite nice! This has the potential to be a double edged sword though, as we see one of his family members getting the Uncle Ben treatment (not without ripping off the astral ancestor scene from Black Panther). However, I have a feeling they won’t further explore the potential drama of Jaime Reyes' newfound superhero life.

Think like the scene from Spider-Man 2 when Peter admits how he could have prevented Uncle Ben’s death, and his original alibi was a lie. Aunt May, his one and only family, just leaves the room without a word, and you're left with the silence of disappointment. Think with Ant-Man (yes, freakin Ant-Man) who has to fight for custody of his daughter, using every second of his time to better himself as a man and father.

What I’m saying is the family element feels more like a Disney channel’s sitcom rather than being grounded in reality. The Grandma totes a machine gun, the little sister has an NES Power Glove with hologram fists and George Lopes can somehow fly a high tech hovercraft. This is all happening during the typical action packed CGI smothered final act of the film, complete with a half ass origin story of the henchmen told to us AFTER he got his ass beat (which admittedly would have made him a better candidate for main villain).

To be fair, the heart to heart moments he has with his family members are very well done.

The film also has a shallow message about classism, you know, rich white people are bad, poor brown people misunderstood. They throw around some buzz words, patting themselves on the back, and then just ignore the notion of it. I’m not saying this is what I wanted the movie to be all about, but it would have provided some meat to chew on.

In terms of what attraction there is for the gang of sheep's that continue to drag their happy asses to the theater seats, there’s not even much for them. Aside from a blink-and-you-miss-it Green Lantern ring in the animated opening sequence, and the mystery disappearance of the original pulp hero Blue Beetle, none of it matters when you consider the current reboot of DC films under James Gunn. I had to ignore all of that and simply view this film within a vacuum as a solo project, and the only thing I feel and think about is..

I am tired. I went in with the low expectation of watching a competent film from DC, and even after getting one, I just wanted more, maybe because this was the first big budget Latino superhero film, maybe because I genuinely like the character, and maybe because I just want another Spider-Man 2, or a Dark Knight, or a Winter Soldier a Days Of Future Past or Logan. Ideally, I would want every superhero film to be made with the same level of quality art.

At best, the Blue Beetle film is a decent popcorn flick watched through streaming.