Movie Review - Blue Beetle

 

DC have not had a great year so far. With the box office for both Shazam: Fury of the Gods and The Flash not looking great, things look pretty grim for James Gunn. I mean, the former wasn't terrible, but at the same time, wasn't really doing anything besides giving us more of the same from the last Shazam film. Whereas the latter was faced with the controversy surrounding Ezra Miller as well as the terrible CGI and people like Gunn and Stephen King hyping that film up as being one of the greatest superhero films of all time... which it ultimately ended up not being. I haven't really paid much attention to the animated projects either, so things aren't looking too good for this film. It's apparently set in its own frame of reality and separate from anything to do with the DCEU, but falls in line with what we are to expect in the upcoming DCU franchise. Beforehand, I knew a little bit about this hero. In particular, his association with the Teen Titans and taking Batman's side in the Injustice video games. So let's see what's going on here:

A company, known as Kord Industries, manage to find an artefact known as the Scarab, which they need to help with new technologies. Meanwhile, elsewhere, Jaime Reyes (played by Xolo Maridueña) returns home from graduating from college, only to learn that his family may be losing their home due to financial difficulties. His sister Milagro (played by Belissa Escobedo) manages to get them both, a cleaning job at the house of Kord Industries CEO, Victoria Kord (played by Susan Sarandon). But things go bad when they are both caught using her toilet. But not all bad as her niece Jenny (played by Bruna Marquezine) who hates what her aunt has done to her father's company, offers to give Jaime a job somewhere else in the company. That job may end up changing his life forever at the cost of things that he loves.

Having not much knowledge of Blue Beetle apart from what I've mentioned already, I feel this film does a good job of representing him as a character. He bears similarities to Miles Morales in terms of his heritage, humble beginnings and how they are both inexperienced heroes, at least to begin with. It's probably the best DC film we have had this year so far as it comes across as the perfect summer blockbuster with comedy, drama, superhero moments and moments that are crazy and over-the-top, but you won't care because you are having a good time with it. I certainly did, despite going in, thinking it won't be good. But one issue I do have is Warner Brothers still using the old blue logo, despite using their new one at the beginning. What gives WB?! 8/10