Blue Beetle: A Familiar Flight for a New Hero
Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña), a recent graduate, returns to his family in Palmera City, where they struggle to make ends meet. He takes a job as a cleaner and encounters Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine), the niece of Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon) and director of Kord Industries, a company involved in biotechnical weapons experiments. Jaime’s life takes an unexpected turn when he comes across a mysterious alien scarab – an exoskeleton that chooses him as its host. Now, a furious Victoria Kord is determined to hunt him down and take back the newfound powers.
Xolo Maridueña as Jaime in “Blue Beetle”
Comics have swiftly evolved into a playground for entomologists. The superhero genre is now populated with insect-like characters, and their stories are churned out with ease. This applies to both Marvel (think “Ant-Man”) and DC Universe, which has boldly given a chance to a relatively unknown superhero: Jaime Reyes, the teenager who becomes the lucky host of an alien beetle suit. Releasing another comic book movie after the relative failure of “The Flash” is a bold move for Warner Bros., but director Angel Manuel Soto has crafted a film with seemingly winning elements: a teenage superhero in the vein of Peter Parker, battling mad scientists from dangerous labs, and a captivating Latin American flavor with Mexican flair, humor, and passion – an attempt to replicate Marvel’s success with “Black Panther” and its African energy. In terms of dramaturgy and technical execution, “Blue Beetle” feels like a product of the early 2000s, not burdened by moral dilemmas or plot twists: a guy simply needs to put on a suit, understand the power that comes with responsibility, defeat the villain, and ride off into the sunset with a beautiful girl.
Nostalgia vs. Innovation: Where Does Blue Beetle Land?
Xolo Maridueña as Jaime in “Blue Beetle”
The problem is that nostalgia for simplicity only works to a certain extent. “Blue Beetle” is tiresome in its desire to return to the roots of Spider-Man: less-than-affluent city neighborhoods, a young man struggling to find his path, and a moral lesson with a father figure destined for the same fate as Uncle Ben. The Mexican family looks with resentment at the towering corporate buildings, and the cause of all their troubles, unsurprisingly, is megalomaniac executives: a remarkably bland villain played by Susan Sarandon, whose bodyguard is a hulking brute (Raoul Max Trujillo in a technological exoskeleton). The film features some exciting action sequences – some of which bear an uncanny resemblance to “Iron Man”: the hero takes his first flight, and the camera accurately captures the suit’s advanced interface. It’s surprising that they didn’t include an adrenaline-pumping AC/DC track.
Comedy and Cultural Identity: The Saving Grace?
Xolo Maridueña as Jaime in “Blue Beetle”
When the plot intrigue and the Mexican flavor fade, “Blue Beetle” unabashedly embraces comedy. The eccentric family members watch their unique superhero relative, and the grandmother fearlessly arms herself with a high-tech gun: you’d do anything for family, because family, as the moral dictates, is the most important thing. Overall, “Blue Beetle” is an unpretentious superhero film, without sharp edges or extremes, but with the primary goal of expanding its audience to include Latin American viewers. Now they, too, will rightfully feel involved in the grand superhero myths that often overlooked Mexican neighborhoods and their hardships. However, despite its colorfulness and upbeat electronic soundtrack, Angel Manuel Soto’s creation fails to offer anything original: not a single creative move that could prolong the life of this beetle. “Blue Beetle” has already shown a disappointing start (the worst in DC Universe history) – a trend that could soon undermine the entire hegemony of comic books in the blockbuster market, proving once again that people are gradually tiring of fast, flying, and insect-like superhumans.