Blue Beetle

Ooof another disposable entry into the hellish cgi nightmare that is cinema these days. I cant even recall if this was DC or Marvel, I think DC? Really scraping the bottom of the barrel here, including trying to make this relatively gross looking hero silhouette seem cool. Kinda reminds me of that spiderman character in venture bros who spews silk from an orifice in his lower back, but this one is less funny. Just odd.

'Blue Beetle' won me over in the end. I wasn't personally convinced by it for large periods, not that I was finding it anything boring, irritating or anything close to that but I just wasn't really feeling the vibe. However, across the second half of the film I could feel myself gradually becoming more invested in the events onscreen. Much of the cast match each other in terms of standard, they all try and subsequently produce solid displays. I will say that I really enjoyed George Lopez's performance as Rudy, he brings a lot of life and humour to the film via that role. Xolo Maridueña is more than decent as the titular character, while Bruna Marquezine makes for a good match alongside Maridueña; even if her character's Kord family portion of the story didn't interest me as much as the Reyes', in that sense the less said about Susan Sarandon the better here - extremely meh, at best. I very much wouldn't say the filmmakers hit the ball out of the park with this 2023 release, but I can certainly see potential with the character going forward - given they are reportedly planning to continue with him within the DCU. As for this, it's a serviceable superhero watch.

I mean, it's not bad. It has the message, but it isn't screamed at you at the top of it's lungs like most movies are these days. In fact, it's so subtle that it's not even much of a distraction. Not that it doesn't have it's distractions. It has the same "because the plot needs it" occurrences that make you roll your eyes that seem to plague just about every movie these days... but even that is sort of muted. The themes are fun and decent enough where you would actually want your kids to see it... and in the end it doesn't try to do anything new, it just attempts to make itself into a fun and enjoyable film. That's really all I ask for in movies, especially these days. I want to have fun at the box office again, and this movie delivers that. It's just... you forgot it was even released didn't you? And you hardly ever heard of the character. There was next to no publicity. It wasn't really advertised, it came at a time when people were burned out from all the political super hero movies, and let's face it, everyone is sick of the huge CGI fight with the huge CGI villain/army. So, at the end you had a bit of a flop, and an undeserving one at that, because the movie is fun, it does entertain, and it deserved more than it got.