The reviews for Blue Beetle have rolled in, and it’s time to see how the next DC film is going to fare. Lets take a look and see.
With DC headed into new announced directions there may not be a future for this charming Latino family but hopefully audiences will catch on to it and make another edition possible in the emerging Safran/Gunn universe. It has more heart and humor than most in this well worn genre. That ought to count for something.
Still, Blue Beetle never loses sight of the community it seeks to honor, not once pandering nor offering surface-level representation of what it means to be Latino. Latinidad is complex — it’s more than where you were born, what language you speak, or what food you eat. But one thing it’s full of is heart, and Blue Beetle has plenty of that to go around. Animo! Grade: B+
Fatigue from oversaturation is hard to ignore in another year of so, so many offerings (it’s only been the maximalist ingenuity of Across the Spider-Verse that’s really broken through) and Blue Beetle is too by-the-book for us to stop truly wondering why we’re still telling the same old story. But there’s a perkiness that’s hard to resist and a base-level competency that’s hard not to appreciate, a small beam of blue light in an otherwise dark time for superheroes.
The director and writer don’t exactly break the mold of the superhero film, but they do treat the genre with an endearing fondness for retro qualities that have mostly been lost in recent years. That makes Blue Beetle a breath of fresh air, with a clear path forward indicated in a mid-credits sequence.
Armed with a freewheeling sense of humor to soften its darker edges – Jaime’s transformation involves some pretty effective body horror – “Blue Beetle” weaves together lively personalities with a sneakily deep comic book mythology that goes down smoothly (and centers on Jenny’s missing dad Ted Kord, the previous Blue Beetle). And with so much in flux with the DC universe these days – from a change in Superman to new leadership – at least fans can expect to see more of Jaime as part of the upcoming reset.
Fingers crossed he’s bringing the fam with him.
It’s become standard to see a Marvel movie get steamrolled, in its final act, by the VFX department. You could say that the same thing happens in “Blue Beetle,” but the effects here, all magnetic waves of electric-blue light, plus clomping robot men (notably Victoria’s souped-up henchman, who appears to turn her on the more his body parts get replaced by metal), provide an old-school rock ’em sock ’em satisfaction. It’s not that the visual flimflam is awesome, exactly. It’s that it’s tactile enough to conjure a sensation of pre-digital kinetic innocence. Jaime, as Blue Beetle, learns how to turn his limbs into his weapon of choice, but the stakes never feel overblown. Jaime is just saving himself, and his family. The multiverse can wait.
As of the time of publication, the film holds a 86% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Blue Beetle hits theaters on Aug. 18, 2023.
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