Blue Beetle
Warner BrosWhat really is left to say about the fallout to what should have been the DC rival to the Marvel Franchise. The DCEU, or whatever it’s called, is dead; left in its place are ventures never to be seen in Batgirl or ventures mustered together to claw some money back in Blue Beetle, as the new dawn approaches with The Suicide Squad and newfound saviour James Gunn to the rescue rebooting everything all over with his “interesting” wit and approach.
Alas, for what is most likely – fingers crossed – the final time to talk about the world is that of Blue Beetle. A DCEU venture that has absolutely nothing in common with its contemporaries in terms of characters or world building and, for what was meant to be thrown aside on HBO Max (or just MAX now), has strangely been given a theatrical window of release. So, is Blue Beetle the wonderful swan-song and reprieve of a misunderstood and poorly managed cinematic universe? Of course not, but to its credit, it is a feature that knows what it is and passionately explores its culture to a successful albeit lacking rate of success.
Starting with the positives, Angel Manuel Soto’s Blue Beetle is a incredibly celebratory venture in terms of culture that is not only quite engaging but surprisingly endearing, resulting in a strong and proud family dynamic on screen with varied characteristics that craft – at least on the surface – a core for emotive immersion. Each member of the family has a sense of individualism and charisma, but they are all constructed with the same comedic sensibility and sentiment which blurs. Thus how the comedic touch can felt quite empty and routine, this results in it being – simply put – annoying for comedic purposes, only without much else in the wake of substance. Lead actor Xolo Mariduena is the classic conventional type that rests on the lorals of an attractive individual with no acting prowess. Supporting cast are equally as ineffective, with George Lopez popping up here and there with comedic value, but nothing that’s interesting. Love interest Bruna Marquezine equally has nothing to do whatsoever aside from pout and look interested, and with how the feature ultimately convenes itself, it feels as if she should have been the lead with a far more personal story, yet instead it is pushed away from the feature to follow a character that has no personal link to the main story aside from genuinely horrible chemistry? It’s quite bizzare how many odd and perplexing decisions this film gravitates towards. But seeing how this universe has been horribly constructed and executed, nothing like this should come at a real surprise.
Speaking of substance, Blue Beetle has not one ounce of flair in any way distinctive like what has come before it or in how it curates itself. As an origin story, this doesn’t seem to have any individualism in terms of narrative nor convention. Feeling exactly like Black Panther, Spider-Man, Iron Man – so on so forth. Simply put, this does not feel fresh and doesn’t invite any form of entertainment that is unique or distinguishing. Granted, it is inspiring for the community it is built for and will indulge the basic realm of superhero audiences, but deeper audiences who want something more than the average audience do, this unfortunately does feel much like a generic superhero venture, akin to something like AXL from 2016.
One element that feels as if it does break away from convention is when Mariduena’s Jaime Reyes first gets his suit. Comic book convention on this matter would suggest it is a lone sequence in secrecy; Blue Beetle decides to involve the whole family for terrific comedic approach and immersion, where the comedy and seriousness meet with perfect harmony. It’s one of probably two moments in which heart and soul can be felt from the CGI conventional vacuum that is this film.
However, what is more disparaging is that above sequence utilises a practical suit, which has a very slim resemblance of reality, but for the other 95% this is a bloated venture that is utterly and overly constructed in computer generated imagery to a point of excessive oblivion. The entire world and setting here utilises CGI, even in backgrounds that look ludicrously cheap and ineffective and take any heart and reality straight out of the situation – and, therefore, plot. To take it a step further, it wouldn’t be so far to further suggest that Blue Beetle has no visual flair whatsoever, never utilising its color, setting or iconography above and beyond the most simplistic of merits. To make matters even worse is that, like Fall Guy, it rests on the lorals of other franchise references – ironically none of anything in its own franchise – such as Final Fantasy and The Fifth Element, which are noting how empty, hollow references that serve nothing but a blink-and-missed Easter egg. This is slightly ironic: a feature that wants to breakdown cultural and conventional barriers thus relies on other properties with references to world build. To further these topics of reference, what demands this to be in the DCEU? It has absolutely no connection to events or previous encounters. The irony here is that it feels like the Spider-Man and Ant-Man for DC in terms of being distinctive and a third party to events, yet doesn’t surround itself in lore or mythology like the other two in terms of accessibility with beloved supporting characters, such as in Iron Man or The Avengers respectively, to give itself a leg up. Yet here, Blue Beetle surprisingly is left to fight one hell of an isolated and lonely uphill battle without help, thrown to the dogs without a mere thought of survival.
