Blue Beetle Movie Review

With the completed reboot of the DC Extended Universe, or DCEU as the cool kids call it, announced with the appointment of Guardians of The Galaxy trilogy and The Suicide Squad director, James Gunn as CEO, people were eagerly awaiting to see what this new take on the comic book universe would look like. At the end of 2022 we were told that the first official launching point of the new DCEU would in fact be ‘Blue Beetle’. It was all very exciting, but the question remained, would this new cinematic universe be a hit, or would it be another bust?

The film stars Xolo Mariduena as Jamie Reyes, as an alien scarab chooses Jamie to be its symbiotic host, bestowing the recent college graduate with a suit of armour that’s capable of extraordinary powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the superhero known as ‘The Blue Beetle’. I was very excited for this film. Going to be a blend of Ant-Man and Iron Man, not just in the titular character's story and his high-tech suit, but also with its seemingly comedic tone. The film's first trailer debuted, and it confirmed my excitement, this film is going to be awesome!

‘Blue Beetle’ was an absolute blast from start to finish. Whilst CEO James Gunn doesn’t serve as a producer on this film at all and the film was nearly finished production when he arrived, you can still feel his presence here. Blue Beetle manages to nail the light-hearted comedic tone, whilst never losing sight of its fun, almost science-fiction elements. The film doesn’t at all feel like previous DCEU instalments, in the best possible way. Previous instalments of the DCEU definitely have their place, I am a fan of nearly all of them, however, the franchise was often criticised for its overly serious tone and lack of humour. Blue Beetle manages to organically re-introduce the audience to these larger-than-life characters, with a fantastic sense of humour that never feels like a derivative of Marvel's successful franchise. It is an exciting new direction for the extended universe.

The characters here are the real standout to me. I found Jamie Reyes to be an excellent protagonist, elevated by Xolo Mariduena charismatic, charming, and relatable performance. He is a relatable hero, which is something a lot of other superhero films tend to forget. He really sells his youth, inexperience, and ignorance, which is the perfect combination for any hero that has this power bestowed upon them. He didn’t ask to be a superhero, but now he is, and he has a responsibility to service his city. It’s a dynamic and origin that has been done a million times before, but because of the charm from the cast, an excellent antagonist ‘The Carapax’ played superbly by Raoul Max Trujilo and the excellent direction from relative newcomer, especially to big-budget superhero films, Angel Manuel Soto.

Another aspect that makes this film memorable and stand out among other superhero films, is the incredible action set pieces. There is a bit of action fatigue in films these days, due largely in part to the length of the sequences and how similar some of these sequences are to other films. Blue Beetle stands out among other superhero films, with action that utilises the mechanics of the world, the powers of its heroes and contains the action to only a handful of locations rather than world hopping. This was refreshing, given it could have easily divulged back into the action sequences of other superhero films. I had an absolute blast with the action here and remember so many of these sequences fondly, with them ingrained into my brain.

‘Blue Beetle’ doesn’t reinvent the superhero genre, but what it does do so well is establish a fun new tone for the DCEU. We have seen time and time again, reboots fail to do this, however, Blue Beetle should give DC Comic book fans hope that the new universe is in safe hands with James Gunn. In Gunn we trust. The film is witty, action-packed and front-loaded with a lot of heart. I was surprised just how much I ended up enjoying this film, and would encourage everyone, comic book fan or not, to check this one out. It is definitely worth your time, especially on 4K Ultra HD.

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Christopher Pattison wrote this blog post for Sanity. See more from Chris here