Blue Beetle (2023)

Score: 3 / 5

It's mostly delightful, and exactly what we expected, so this will be brief. Blue Beetle, the latest DCU feature, is one superhero I was completely unfamiliar with, and so it was really fun to be taken for a ride. And a ride it is, as a familiar and rote origin story for a smart-aleck young man learning to harness his newfound powers and to come of age at the same time. But there is a key difference this time around.

Directed by Ángel Manuel Soto, and written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, this is the kind of culturally relevant -- and important -- superhero movie we're finally seeing in the 2020s. Namely: diverse and intentionally non-white. The MCU finally got a bit diverse with Black Panther and Eternals, Sony with the Spiderverse; the DCU has been more diverse in appearance if not in plot or theme with Black Adam and Birds of Prey. But this time, and lovingly so, they dive full in with a Latino family fully enmeshed in their cultural heritage. A significant amount of the film's dialogue is in Spanish, not unlike In the Heights, and much of the humor comes from their perspective as white people call them by the wrong names or they subvert (and embrace) various stereotypes.

As such, the film is also more colorful, kinetic, and fun in its delivery. The dull plot does allow for speeding through bits that would have, twenty years ago, needed time to breathe and explain itself; now the arc of these tales allows for a certain visual and aural shorthand. The music swells as a closeup on the titular alien device reveals its importance without a single breath of explanation. The protagonist, Jaime Reyes (Xolo Mariduena), touches it and it violently takes over his body a la Venom or Tom Holland's Spidey with Iron Man's upgrades, and we don't need scene after scene of the alien talking to him to understand exactly their forced and humorous dynamic. Its breakneck pacing and rapid-fire dialogue, especially from featured actor George Lopez, make it often laugh-out-loud funny. 

Despite these variances in points of interest and visible diversity, the film is remarkably unremarkable. That is, its over-reliance on CGI that looks cartoonish and often unfinished will undoubtedly turn off hardcore fans. Its dull story and woefully underdeveloped plot won't win over many casual fans. Its villains -- and I'm truly sorry, Susan Sarandon, I really do love you -- are vapid and unspecific in every possible way. The closest they come to relevant is when, during a horrific raid on the Reyes house, Sarandon's character (Victoria Kord, mogul of her family's company) flies overheard in a helicopter with searchlight, screaming "Round them up!" to her riot-gear-sporting soldiers about the Latino family. It's gross -- intentionally so -- and that's about it for her character depth. 

A cursory discussion, like this one, will easily note the formulaic approach in terms of theme: a villain says the hero's love for family makes him weak and he ends up proving that idea wrong. Imperialism is bad, monopolies are dangerous, love prevails and family wins, and of course bravery is a prime virtue. A more nuanced discussion will consider the ways in which economic disparity controls the lives of disenfranchised communities; like the fire people in the recent Elemental, the Reyes family and their barrio are the product of historical poverty despite having solid jobs and homes and lives. There is no small discussion of gentrification and being relegated to locations of problematic social and municipal services. Jaime himself has a degree, a positive outlook, and gumption for work, but his skin color and accent and address will always limit his future.

And while the film is certainly "about" these issues, it dilutes these valuable messages with typical subplots of budding romance, the loss of a father, a plodding violent threat who is more machine than man, and an elder with secret past and hilarious heroic ability. Instead of leaning into and crafting articulate observations about generational disenfranchisement, inner city racial dynamics, or even the skirted issues of equitable employment, the film does do a few other important things. The screenplay and actors mine culturally specific references to telenovelas and Mexican superheroes, the School of the Americas, and more. So it doesn't break the mold, and it doesn't bring much that's new to the genre, but it is a fresh voice with a lot of heart and a lot of good representation, and that makes it a win in my book.