Blue Bettle | Review, 5 things I liked and disliked about it

Cast and Crew:

Director – Angel Manuel Soto.
Xolo Mariduena plays Blue Bettle/Jaime Reyes.
Bruna Marquezine plays Jenny Kord.
George Lopez plays Rudy Reyes, Jaime’s Uncle.
Belissa Escobedo plays Milagro Reyes, Jaime’s Sister.
Susan Sarandon plays Victoria Kord.
Damian Alcazar plays Alberto Reyes, Jaime’s father.
Adriana Barraza plays Nana Reyes.
Raoul Trujillo plays Conrad Carapax.

Plot:

Right in the beginning, we see the Kord Industries mining and looking for the Scarab that lands somewhere from outer space. The movie continues from a place called Palmera City in El Paso, Texas, United States of America. Where we see that Jaimes Reyes lands and comes back home after graduation from Gotham where he meets his family and is introduced to the financial problems his family is suffering from. Soon Jaime is asked to join a job he can get so that his family can save their house which can be soon seized by the banks.
Jaime gets a job at house of Kord of cleaning and maintenance through the help of her sister, Milagro, where he meets Jenny Kord. As Jaime and Milagro lose their jobs because of using the private amenities of the house. Somehow, Jaime gets to make Jenny Kord offer him a job and is asked to meet her at Kord Industries the next day.
As Jaime Reyes reaches Kord Industries, Jenny comes running towards him where she has stolen the Scarab that Kord Industries found and hands it over to Jaime in a box of hamburger and asks him to not open and protect it with his life.
As Jaime reaches home with the box of burger, his family teases him for not opening the box or even checking what is inside it. Soon Milagro opens the box and founds a toy-like beetle, which starts glowing and gets activated in the hands of Jaime. Just in a couple of moments, the blue beetle gets activated and moves all around Jaime’s body to find an opening to enter his body. As soon as the Scarab gets in the body of Jaime, we see him turning acquiring alien-shaped body armour which takes him off his home for a run.

Review:

Hopefully, this is the first movie that is set in the DC Universe which is about to be built by the DC Studios headed by James Gunn and Peter Safran as the CEOs.
Coming to the movie, Blue Beetle has been one of a rare kind that shows the origin of a hero. Considering the success that Marvel had with the release of ‘Avengers: Infinity War‘ and ‘Avengers: Endgame‘, where we saw the culmination of a decade’s worth of storytelling and all the heroes fighting a single big bad antagonist.
On the other hand, we have been seeing DCEU following the success of ‘Avengers‘ in 2012 and since then they have been trying to set up ‘Justice League‘ and directly fight against one of the best antagonists in DC Comics, Darkseid. But unfortunately, the audience that does not follow comic books had a hard time following up with the various characters, and back-to-back bad movies kept on pushing the audience away from their movies. Whether it has been Shazam, The Flash, or the upcoming Aquaman, people have tended to lose their interest and hope in seeing DC movies. And maybe, we can hope for James Gunn to restore the faith in the lovers of DC, and personally, I do believe that DCU is going to be the next big thing in pop culture and under the guidance of DC Studios, it will certainly be better than what MCU currently is.

Coming back to the movie, Blue Beetle certainly delivers a fresh and family entertainer for the audience and lover of DC projects. Although it has been a tough ride for DCEU to provide better stories and movies to the audience, but this movie certainly has the potential to entertain the audience despite the fact that Blue Beetle will hardly be seen anywhere for more than a couple of years even after the confirmation from James Gunn that Blue Beetle will be carried forward to the DC Universe. Coming to one of the most talked about topics of all the DC movies, colours and cinematography, which has certainly been better since James Gunn took over the DC projects. Whether it was Black Adam, Shazam 2, or The Flash, the cinematography has certainly been better than what it was under Zack Snyder. The entire Palermo City has neon lighting which looks elegant on the big screen. The music, acting, and casting remain really good for the conditions DCEU has been under. Acting of every actor, especially Xolo Mariduena, Bruna Marquezine, Adrianna Barrazza, and Geroge Lopez was best suited for their roles. The charm of their screen presence was flawless and gave the audience a certain energy whenever they were on screen. For more elaborated details, we will discuss it the sections below.

5 things I liked about Blue Beetle:

Blue Beetle was not the perfect movie that came out of DCEU, but it certainly does well enough to give the audience a good time. For now, here are 5 things I liked about the Blue Beetle.

1. Even though after having a way lower budget than The Flash, the CGI of Blue Beetle was way better. The movie did not have any big flashy cameos, big actors, or big screenings all around the world, and the movie itself was not promoted by the actors of the movie because of various strikes of actors and writers’ unions that have been going on in Hollywood. Coming back to the CGI of the movie, there were many shots of complete CGI and VFX but they were crafted and edited so well that there were just a couple of moments where someone could nitpick about the shortcomings the movie had with presenting an alien suit.
2. It is a relief that James Gunn announced Blue Beetle is the first movie that is set in the main DC Universe that will be further built and developed by and under James Gunn. It would have been bizarre and boring if the movie was just launched and even after having a decent storyline, Blue Beetle would not have been included in the DC Universe. Soon we will start getting more projects from the DC Universe the first one being Creature Commandos and more after that, but will begin to release from the next year in 2024.
3. The performance of Xolo Mariduena was exceptionally well. We have seen him performing fantastically in one of the most popular series, Cobra Kai where he plays the main lead exceptionally well. It would have been a waste of young talent if Xolo Mariduena would not have been carried forward to the DC Universe. Xolo performs well with his acting and carries his charm throughout the movie, as we have seen him perform in his other projects as well. And surely, his training for Cobra Kai would have given him an edge while performing those fantastic actions and stunts. Hopefully, we will get to see him soon reprising his role as Jaime Reyes in some movie or series.
4. One after another, DC releases family-oriented movies even after they have been continuously tanking at the box office. But this time, the writers make a good script that has a really good pace and keep you entertained at every moment. We hardly see a dull moment in the entire movie. Unlike Shazam where the story revolves around Billy Baxton, what he wants, and how he shares powers with his foster siblings. In Blue Beetle, we see the story revolve around Jaime Reyes which also majorly concerns his family’s well-being and even his family members are always there to love and support him. Whether it was his sister, uncle, or grandma, everyone deeply loves Jaime and every family member cares for each other.
5. The future of Blue Beetle will be an interesting thing to look forward to in the DC Universe. As we will hardly get to see any origin stories in the upcoming Universe, heroes will be flying and roaming around in the universe as they already exist and are beyond their origins. This gives a chance to the writers to bring in various characters as they already are in ‘Superman Legacy‘. And hopefully, we will get to see Jaime in some project or other. But it looks like it will take some time to see him in Teen Titans, and probably after ‘The Brave and the Bold‘ where we will be introduced to Robin/Damian Wayne.

5 things I disliked about Blue Beetle:

Coming to the things that I did not like about Blue Beetle. Although the movie was great for a one-time watch, people will certainly pick some negative points from the movie while watching it more times.

1. The budget of the movie should have been more considering the budget that was allocated to The Flash and various other movies that were released by DC in the past. Even after a restricted budget of $104 Million, we get to see much better VFX and CGI in Blue Beetle than what we saw in The Flash. There were some sequences where there were complete CGI fights, where Blue Beetle fights Conrad Carapax, which was brilliantly filmed, executed, and created.
2. It was a bit disappointing to see that the cast of Blue Beetle did not participate in the marketing and promotional activities of the film. Yes, I do get that they did not promote the movie for the respect of writers and actors strike, but even the cast of ‘Oppenheimer‘ marketed their movie and supported the strikes as well. The movie, Blue Beetle could have received more attention and viewers if the actors could have promoted the film.
3. It was and felt a little bizarre that the history of Scarab was not explained. We see Kord Industry mining the Scarab which looked like the present time and all the action for the Blue Beetle took in the present time as well. Now this hardly explains how Ted Kord acquired the Scarab, or did he hide it somewhere safe, even the post-credit scene does tease us about Ted Kord, but we hardly know what took place in the past.
4. There were some scenes where the height and scaling done for Blue Beetle did not match the height of Xolo Mariduena. It could have been only me who picked it up, where in the final fight between Blue Beetle and Conrad, I think Blue Beetle looked shorter than the actual height of Xolo.
5. Conrad Carapax as the main antagonist felt really weak on screen. He was hardly developed by the writer and even his backstory was given to us at the climax of the film, which made us hardly relate to him or have any emotion for him. Else, Conrad Carapax was just a scarred-up face with his experience with super-soldier mechanisms installed in his body who was fighting to acquire the Blue Beetle that accepted the body of Jaime Reyes.