Here’s what Warner Bros. thinks. and DC we need: another superhero movie about a fiery young man suddenly forced to shoulder responsibility and fight for justice.
Here’s what we are Actually need: A superhero movie about a badass nana with a secret revolutionary past. Guess which “Blue Beetle” movie, which hits theaters Friday, will be released?
However, credit must be given to the inclusion of a rebellious grandmother, who, while not the film’s titular superhero, is one-fifth of the lovable Mexican family that brings the paint-by-numbers superhero film to life. it, directed by Ángel Manuel Soto and written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer.
The actual protagonist is Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña), a fresh-faced college graduate who returns home to find his family struggling financially. Reyes searches fruitlessly for work until he meets Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine), the chic heiress of Kord Industries, a massive tech company run by her great-aunt, Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon). When Jenny gives Jaime a stolen scarab hidden in a fast-food box, Jaime discovers that the beetle is a sentient piece of ancient alien tech with a mind of its own. It bonds with Jaime, protecting him and giving him the ability to fly, heal quickly and create any weapon he can imagine. As Victoria aims to recover the beetle to create armies of destruction, Jaime must stop her from getting it and keep her family — and the world — safe.
“Blue Beetle” offers a formulaic narrative — so predictable, in fact, that you can catch the tragic death in Jaime’s hero’s origin story coming from three counties away. Other superhero benchmarks are also at play: the young man struggling while adjusting to his new powers; clunky battles that look like a big-screen re-creation of a 5-year-old BattleBots; hard-won moral lessons that are actually clichés. (During a fight, Victoria’s brutal bodyguard declares, “The love you feel for your family makes you weak”; it turns out that Jaime’s love for family actually makes him stronger – who who knows?) This unremarkable story, with its cheap visual effects and Soto’s colorless direction, is a prime example of somnambulist filmmaking that lulls the audience into a mindless stupor.
At least the Reyes family is a force to be reckoned with; their chaotic ensemble scenes are the most interesting, and truly unexpected, of the film. Jaime’s parents (Damían Alcázar, Elpidia Carrillo) stifle the hero’s emotional journey with mawkish dialogue, but Jaime’s sassy, blunt younger sister, Milagro (Belissa Escobedo) is beyond me ), and his jokes about race, class and the family’s social status. Uncle Rudy (George Lopez), with a beard like a raccoon tail, is a wild-card tech genius with enviable one-liners that Lopez delivers with perfect comic timing. (“Is that the new Tamagotchi?” he asks when the beetle first wakes up.) And Nana, played by Adriana Barraza, is ready to steal the movie.
Maridueña, as the protagonist, does not have the same charisma or humor; a baby face, puppy-dog eyes and a wonderful Stamos-esque sweep of black curly hair do not constitute an actual personality. And he and Marquezine, smartly dressed in a business casual suit, have the romantic chemistry of a pickle and a jar of mayonnaise.
But perhaps the most frustrating feature of “Blue Beetle” is its attempt to reinforce its conventional narrative with its most basic political ties. In the first part of the movie, Milagro tells his brother that their superpower is invisible to the wealthier classes, like the Kords. The Reyes family lives in a rough part of a fictional Palmera City, a sort of neo-Miami in the same universe as Superman’s Metropolis and Batman’s Gotham City. Jaime swallows racial microaggressions, like a snooty secretary who insists on calling him “Jay-me” instead of “Hi-me.”
A few call-outs to Latin culture, including a cameo by “El Chapulín Colorado,” a Mexican superhero TV series, are more successful in communicating a specific cultural experience than outright nods to those without. precarious position that many immigrant families are forced to enter. Jaime’s bildungsroman becomes an extension of his family’s immigration story and a not-so-subtle metaphor about tenacity and resilience, all wrapped up in a conflict that serves as a critique of militarism and the profits of war.
Taken alongside a swarm of other entomological superheroes, including spiders, ants and wasps, this blue beetle – mandibles or no mandibles – has no bite.
Blue Beetle
Rated PG-13 for sassy innuendo and violent villain crushes. Running time: 2 hours 7 minutes. In theaters.