Blue Beetle Review!

Blue Beetle is driven by the performance of Xolo Maridueña which makes it surprisngly fresh with the current crop of superhero films! It is caught between the DC Extended Universe and the new DC Films, but seems to be moving into the later’s universe. He is a hero backed by a family. Angel Manuel Soto, is the director, and he previously directed the drama, Charm City Kings (2020). It is interesting to bring on a director for a comic book movie who is known for dramas and shorts. 

The writer is Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer who also wrote the action movie, Miss Bala (2019). This version of the character was introduced in Infinite Crisis #3 (2006). He also appeared in the Smallville episode, “Booster” (2011) played by Jaren Brandt Bartlett. The story opens with a helicopter heading to the snowy base of Kord Industries. This is the business of Ted Kord, the original Blue Beetle, from Blue Beetle #1 (1986). 

We see a man, Lt. Carapax (Raoul Max Trujillo), with a cybernetic implant on his neck and mechanical arm, head towards the helicopter. Trujillo appeared in the sci fi action film, Riddick (2013) as Lockspur. The villain was also introduced in Blue Beetle #1. He is a simple, brutal henchman like the cyborgs mercentaries in Bloodshot (2020). Carapax meets with the head of Kord Industries, Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon). 

The action movie, Jolt (2021), featured Sarandon. There is a large globular object that it is being cut through and Victoria wants the recovery of the “scarab.” Victoria is the standard corporate industralist villain who seeks for a technology that will make her company take over the world. There is no consultation with a board, military, or government. She consults with Dr. Sanchez (Harvey Guillén) who tries to note that his name is not Sanchez. 

Guillén stars as Guillermo de la Cruz in the horror comedy show, What We Do In the Shadows. He is the scientist who works for the corporation and doesn’t question the end goals. We move into a massive cut of the globe to see the blue scarab. Then, there is a series of news articles, television reports on Victoria, and a comet coming to Earth. A hint of the scarab’s extraterrestrial origin? We move to the Palmera City, a location that first appeared in Blue Beetle: Graduation Day #2 (2023), though created for the film. 

It is apparently in Texas, but not made clear in the film except that it is an American city. At the airport, Jaime Reyes (Maridueña) is returning to the city and puts on his graduation cap. Maridueña is known for playing Miguel Diaz in the action series, Cobra Kai. He is pivotal in selling the superheroics and story, grounding it, and he succeeds.  Whatever part of the movie that has been seen before is just fine with the work of Maridueña and director Soto. 

His grandmother, Nana (Adriana Barraza), not Abuela?, is looking out for Jaime. Barraza starred in horror series, The Strain, as Guadalupe Elizade. Nana is a standout character who is of course endlessly supportive of Jaime. Some of the dialogue is in sub-titled Spanish and Spanglish, some of the dialogue is not translated which passes up the more adult words. This should be understood by audiences especially younger members and the violence and dramatic content may be too much under the suggested PG-13 rating. 

The other family members include his sister, Milagro (Belissa Escobedo), the actress was in the comedy horror movie, Hocus Pocus 2 (2022). Milagro is the closest family member to Jaime and jokes around with him, but she is still a comic figure until there is a sudden dramatic turn. Also important is Jaime’s father, Alberto (Damián Alcázar), he is a strong family figure in Jaime’s life. I later recognized Alcázar as Lord Sorespian in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008).  

Also at the airport pick up is Jaime’s mother, Rocio (Elpidia Carrillo), the actress played Anna in the original Predator (1987)! Then, we have the arrival of Uncle Rudy (George Lopez) in his truck, he is the conspiracist inventor like Brian Tyree Henry’s character in Godzilla vs. Kong (2021). Lopez is currently in the sitcom, Lopez vs. Lopez. The movie just threads the use of Lopez throughout the movie. The family dynamic is what sets the movie apart from other superhero films. Milagro can’t keep the “bad news” from Jaime and says they are losing the house. 

They have three months to get rent and the auto shop is having problems with Kord Industries competition. On top of all of this, Alberto has had a heart attack! We see these problems is what the family has to overcome. We move to the Edge Keys separted from Palmera City by a long bridge. It is visually clear the division between the haves and have nots. The Reyes family continues the celebration of Jaime as the first Reyes member to graduate. We find out that Jaime graduated pre-law from Gotham Law, which is on of the few references to another DC character.  

Jaime looks out of the window to Palmera City and hopes to live in a mansion with an infinity pool. We cross over to see a similar mansion where Jaime and Milagro work as cleaners. They see Victoria, their employer, who is busy talking on a phone while walking next to Carapax. She is met by her niece, Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine), who is the daughter of Ted Kord. Marquezine appeared as Roseli in the dance film, Breaking Through (2015). 

She of course is the daughter of a superhero like Cassie Lang in this year’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Jenny is the high tech, hero side, of the story. Ted Kord has disappeared and Victoria took over the company. Jenny brings her aunt’s attention to a Kord Industries commercial on promethium mines. This is the mysterious metal like adamantium in the Marvel Universe, and was introduced in New Teen Titans #9 (1981). The commercial showcases the OMAC (One Man Army Corps) program. This is the is the “future of policing” that reminds me of Robocop (1987), but more so the Cyberdyne commercial that was in the T2:3D: Battle Across Time attraction. 

This is comic book concept that creates armored cybogs that first appeared in The OMAC Project #1 (2005), but the acronym and original character was a sci fi hero created by Jack Kirby in OMAC #1 (1974). Milagro tells Jaime that she is going to use the private restroom. Jenny is opposed to the program that she says strays from her father’s vision of the company. She asks Victoria about Pago Island, but is told that it is classified.  This was a place introduced in Blue Beetle #2 (1967). 

The comic references are very deep in this film. Victoria counters Jenny saying, “Your father abandoned this company and abandoned you.”  Carapax is about to reach out for Jenny, but Jaime interrupts them. In some bad timing, Milagro leaves the private bathroom and Victoria fires the both of them! Jaime and Milagro wait outside the mansion for their ride when Victoria promises a job for Jaime and puts her number into his phone. Then, she leaves in her chauffered Mercedes. Milagro teases her brother that he hopes that Jenny will pull him out of the barrio like María la del Barrio. 

We see Nana watching that same telenovela starring Thalía. Clever. There are many cultural touchstones that are fun to catch. Jaime talks to Alberto that he feels he let the family down. Alberto says that he has yet to find what he is supposed to do and says, “Familia that’s forever.” This is what separates this movie from other superhero fare. Jaime decides to text Jenny that he will accept her job offer. The next to day, Jaime, dressed in a suit, walks towards the stunning Kord Industries building. 

The family is there in Rudy’s truck to tease and see Jaime at his potential new job. Jenny passes Dr. Sanchez and takes his i.d. She scans it to enter a lab that has the scarab! She pulls it from attached tubes and into a Big Belly Burger box. This is a DC universe fast food franchise that also appeared in the Flash tv series. Later, Sanchez enters the lab to eat his burger, but then sees that the scarab is missing and reports the security breach. Jaime runs to see Jenny who is hurrying to leave the building. An alarm sounds and Jenny gives Jaime the burger box to guard with his life. Then, she directs guards as Jaime leaves. 

At his family’s dinner table, Jaime sets the burger box, Milagro takes the scarab and then tosses it to Rudy. Once Jaime takes it, the scarab begins to glow, and attaches to his face! Rudy tries to pull it off, but is thrown back by some electrical energy! The scarab starts to crawl around Jaime and burrows inside him. It bursts out of his back and attaches him to the ceiling. The armor forms and starts to burn off his clothes! He then stands in full armored form, a comics accurate suit, and Jaime hears the armor, Khaji-Da (Becky G). The singer also played Trini, the Yellow Ranger, in Power Rangers (2017). 

There is an alien based armor that has a female sentient voice and can form powerful weapons with the Valiant Comics character, X-O-Manowar, created in 1992. The strength of Blue Beetle is not the originality of concepts, but their use. Jaime tries to find a way to remove the scarab with the help of Jenny and Rudy. They go to the Kord Estate to uncover secrets, then deal with Carapax, and Victoria’s plan for the OMACs. I would like to see more adventures of Jaime Reyes! Blue Beetle takes the usual superhero ideas, but makes them fresh by centering them on family, the earnestness of Xolo Maridueña’s Jaime, and the energetic direction of Angel Manuel Soto! 

Five out of Five Scarabs! 

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