DC’s Blue Beetle opens up an interesting conversation about the way we consume “comic book movies” these days. There seems to be an increasing insistence that everything we watch has to be part of some intricately-planned, multi-year storyline that spans the width and breadth of whatever universe it’s set in, otherwise it doesn’t really “count.”

Landing in the tricky position of being the last movie of the existing DC Universe before everything is rebooted with 2025’s Superman: Legacy as part of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s “Chapter One: Gods and Monsters”, Blue Beetle definitely fell victim to some of that viewer apathy in the lead-up to its release (despite Gunn insisting that its hero will be a part of the DCU moving forwards.)

However, if you’re able to block out the fact that this definitely doesn’t feel as “interconnected” as some other recent DCU movies (no awkward Wonder Woman cameo here, folks), what you’re left with is an enjoyable slice of superhero fun, with impressive action set-pieces, some genuinely amusing comedy and an immensely likeable cast.

Xolo Maridueña plays Jamie Reyes, the first member of his Latino family to graduate college, who unwillingly has super powers thrust upon him when an alien “scarab” grafts itself onto his body. This puts him firmly in the crosshairs of Victoria Cord (played by the always entertaining Susan Sarandon) who wants to weaponise the Scarab technology to fuel her O.M.A.C. (One Man Army Corps) project.

Okay, so the plot itself isn’t anything to write home about. Teenager finds himself with powers, evil corporation wants to capture said powers for nefarious means… it’s all things we’ve seen many, many times before. But director Ángel Manuel Soto manages to inject an impressive amount of freshness into the proceedings by focusing heavily on Reyes and his family, forming an impressive bond from the get-go with this eclectic group of endearing and fiercely resilient individuals.

The bulk of the comedy is provided by Jamie’s younger sister Milagro (played just the right side of annoying by Belissa Escobedo) and his anti-establishment uncle Rudy (a scene-stealing George Lopez), both of whom deliver plenty of legitimately funny moments along the way – Rudy’s reaction to the destruction of his “Taco” being a personal highlight.

The rest of the cast does a solid enough job with what they’re given, but it’s Maridueña’s charisma and likeability that carries a lot of the load here. Sure, there’s a lot of “whoa, this suit sure is crazy!” antics along the way, but there are also plenty of heartfelt, humorous and sincere moments to offset them and ensure that the viewer should hopefully be continually rooting for him to succeed against Sarandon and her mean-faced bodyguard Carapax.

One thing that really shines about this movie are the action scenes, in particular the impressive amount of hand-to-hand combat used by Reyes in his Blue Beetle form. Soto has been very open about taking inspiration from the likes of The Raid and Injustice 2 for these sequences, and that definitely shows itself on the screen with all manner of crowd-pleasing combos and counters.

There are some unexpectedly powerful emotional beats along the way, and while the third act falls into the same ‘CGI bunfight’ tradition that all comic book movies seemingly must adhere to, the effects here are genuinely impressive, and serve as an impressive palate cleanser after the less-than-stellar visuals of previous DCU offering The Flash.

Honestly, I didn’t go into this one with particularly high hopes, finding myself reluctantly infected with the same viewer apathy I mentioned above (the complete and utter lack of advertising here in the UK definitely didn’t help matters either.)  However, once it started rolling I found myself with a smile on my face for a significant chunk of the 127 minute running time, and for a superhero movie that clearly doesn’t have any “shared universe” pretensions and just wants to tell an enjoyable story and introduce a likeable new character, that’s surely all that really matters, right?

Rating: 3.5/5.

---

The writer of this piece was: Craig Neilson-Adams (aka Ceej)
Article Archive: Ceej Says
You can follow Ceej on Twitter

---