It's a hard time to be a hero at the box office these days.
Overplayed plots, micro-managed universes and shoddy visuals squeezed from overworked and underpaid VFX teams have hobbled the decades-long dominance of superhero films at the box office over the last few years. It’s amidst this environment of diminished critical and financial returns that Blue Beetle flies into the fray. Thankfully - as a long-time fan of the various iterations of this 2nd string do-gooder - he comes as a breath of fresh air in an increasingly stale field, recapturing the thrills that made the genre so popular to begin with.
Directed by Àngel Manuel Soto, this origin introduces Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña), a young college grad with a bright future who returns to his home in Palmera City only to have his family’s dire financial straits come crashing down on his dreams. Looking to find a good job fast, Jaime stumbles into a series of events that end in him becoming the host of The Scarab, an alien AI exosuit that gives him incredible power - whether he wants it or not. Now he’s on the run from villainous tech mogul Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon), forced to master the suit if he hopes to save his family and stop Kord’s police state.
It may be a familiar story - the young hero’s journey to accept their fate and save the day - but Soto and his cast infuse it with so much sincere love and unique personality that it feels as fresh and exciting as the day Spider-man first swung onto screens back in 2001. Maridueña is an effortlessly charismatic lead, stepping into Jaime’s shoes with an endearing drive that carries each beat - comedic, dramatic and heroic - with convincing precision. You never doubt he has what it takes to pull it off, even before he himself realizes it.
Surrounding Jaime is his family. Soto and screenwriter Gareth Dunnet-Alocer bypass the overwrought web of lies that plagues most teen heroes, bringing the whole Reyes clan in on the secret from Day One. This proves to be a brilliant move, allowing the family bond to be the fierce heart of the story without diluting it with any noble deceptions. Too many teen heroes have these crucial relationships strained by their secrets - here, Jaime gets to embrace them and all the emotional power and vivid cultural grounding that comes with it. And as an added bonus, it ensures plenty of screentime for George Lopez’ scene-stealing Uncle Rudy.
Beyond the family unit, we have the love-interest, Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine), who holds her own as an unlikely hero and plays well off of Maridueña’s Jaime, delivering the best chemistry any superhero couple has managed in some time. Sarandon's villainous Victoria Kord is not particularly memorable, but she delivers the gravitas expected from hiring a talent of her stature.
A final element that stands out is the world-building. While very similar to our own, Palermo City is infused with futuristic tech the likes of which you’d expect from a comic book world, unlike other cinematic universes where earth-shattering advancements never seem to impact the ordinary citizens. The looming threat of Kord’s abuse of the Scarab technology feels more real because we already see a society halfway down that slope.
It’s the attention to these familiar details and well-worn plot points that makes ‘Blue Beetle’ stand out from the pack. Too many movies these days go through the motions or skip over them entirely, opting for what they think will come off as original and exciting to audiences that have sat through The Hero’s Journey so many times before.
But the end result of such an approach is not unlike writers who advocate using AI to skip past the “grunt work” of churning out an essay. The familiar, repeated steps for laying the framework are seen as unimportant. Why not just cut to “the good stuff?” Those basics, however, are where the core of the artform lies. Without due attention, you’re left with a hollow work that fails to understand the motivation behind its own existence; flashy fight scenes with soulless CGI creations smashing against each other on a technicolor backdrop with no greater purpose.
In ‘Blue Beetle,’ by the time the final fight arrives to deliver the stunning visuals and action-packed thrills we’ve been waiting for, the heart is intact. Every intentional choice in developing the characters and walking them through the steps of their journey brings them to a place that we care what happens to them. We know Jaime will win in the end, but we care about seeing it happen because he and his family and friends are real characters we’ve connected with thanks to the “grunt work” that was carefully executed in the first two acts.
Soto proves here that the problem plaguing superhero movies isn’t familiarity - after all, as the most annoying people on the internet will tell you, all great stories can be boiled down to tropes at the end of the day. What makes a great film is attentive care from artists who don’t cut corners, infusing the most basic elements of their work with personality, passion and sincerity. That is where uniqueness comes from. And that is what makes 'Blue Beetle' soar.
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