Blue Beetle – Review

Cert – 12, Run-time – 2 hours 7 minutes, Director – Ángel Manuel Soto

Whilst searching for a job to allow his family to keep their home, Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) finds himself becoming the host for an alien scarab, providing him with a futuristic suit of armour weapons system

DC’s previous two films this year – Shazam: Fury Of The Gods and The Flash – have, amongst their merits and flaws, fallen into something of a modern superhero cliché. Dealing with huge world-ending, city-destroying events or some form of multiverse with multiple versions of multiple characters. Blue Beetle may be familiar with its own set of clichés, but it’s of the origin story kind we were seeing a few years ago from both Marvel and DC. Yet, the heart of the film isn’t in the action or indeed the development of Xolo Maridueña’s Jaime Reyes into the titular hero, instead it’s in his relationship with his family.

Having just returned home from college, graduating in pre-law, Jaime is met with a pile of bad news. The family home is at risk of being taken away, business isn’t what it used to be – especially since his father (Damián Alcázar) had a heart attack – and there’s very little money coming in to pay the recently-tripled rent. So, Jaime does his best to throw himself out there to get the best job possible, however this unexpectedly leads him to possessing an alien scarab which chooses him as its host. The suit of armour with its various advanced weapons (voiced by Becky G) is designed to protect its host at all costs.

Jaime’s family are there when he’s first connected to the suit – in an almost body-horror like sequence – they become key targets when Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon), a wealthy businesswoman who has been searching for the scarab for at least 15 years to turn it into a weapon, tries to track Jaime down. There’s plenty of heart amongst them as the tight-knit group attempt to band together in this strange set of circumstances – “we’ve been through worse”, “have we?”. Yet, they also bring about much of the film’s humour. Not just in the way they bounce off and lightly make fun of each other, but also in their own individual personalities. Slight conspiracy theorist uncle Rudy (George Lopez) is a highlight with his loud personality, and Lopez avoiding a conventional ‘full-on comedic conspiracy theory’ performance, helped by dialogue which doesn’t make this the sole trait of the character.

The Reyes clan are brought into the action as the film goes on, particularly in the third act. Helping to provide some chuckles and amusement as the film starts to show its run-time. While the opening stages, and indeed much of the film, breeze by, particularly thanks to the entertainment factor once it’s established that there is no world-ending threat at play, the ending feels rather drawn out as the film goes for one big climactic battle to round off its protagonist’s journey, and sort out its villain/s. The film as a whole might have its familiar elements, both helping and hindering it on different occasions, but as a whole there’s a likable piece of work here thanks to the family unit at the heart of it – and indeed the humour and entertainment factor throughout.

While its uncomplicated nature both pushes the film and holds it back there’s an entertaining nature to Blue Beetle thanks to its humour and the familial bond at its centre, even during some of the bursts of action – even if some push the run-time a bit far.