Here’s a scenario for you. You go to an amusement park and ride a roller coaster. You think, “Yeah, that’s pretty fun”. Then you go to the next ride, and it’s almost the same ride. Sure it looks a bit different and may have a slightly different style, but it still goes through the same loops and bends as the previous ride. But that’s okay; the first one was fun so, by definition, this one is fun too. But then as you keep going on more rides you start to find them all to be so similar to one another to the point you don’t feel as thrilled as you did the first time, and now you’re kind of just left with a headache.

That’s essentially how I feel about comic book movies now.

DC is in the midst of a total rehaul of its Cinematic Universe, being led up by James Gunn who hopes to create somewhat of a consistent world for some of the best comic characters ever created. The Flash was supposed to be the final sprint for the original DCEU, but now their latest film Blue Beetle is kind of in a weird spot. It’s been touted as the first film of the new DCEU, but it was made before Gunn stepped in to control the direction of the overarching universe. So it doesn’t really reflect what the future may hold for the brand, and honestly, that’s probably not a bad thing.

Blue Beetle is at its best when it gives time for the main cast to interact and bounce off one another, leading to some fairly comedic and emotional moments that feel genuine to the family dynamic as well as the Mexican-American experience. Unfortunately, none of these elements really lend themselves to anything all that interesting. It’s fairly standard origin movie-fare that is hardly compelling in its conflict, writing, world building, or antagonists. It’s a bit of a success for representation, but it feels so run of the mill it’s hard to believe this is blazing a trail in any aspect.

A young man named Jamie Rayes accidentally comes into possession of an alien weapon called the Scarab, which forms a symbiotic relationship with its host, granting them a protective exoskeleton outfitted with any kind of weapons you can imagine. This puts him and his family into the sights of the shady Kord Industries, who hope to reclaim the Scarab in order to power a high tech army to assist in keeping their firm grasp on the world.

For me, the strongest aspect of the film was the main cast, as I found a lot of their interactions to feel very genuine and fun. Xolo Mariduena’s Jamie is filled with a humbleness and positive energy that makes him likable enough to care about, even if his own personal story isn’t all that interesting or engaging. He’s a fun time, but truth be told he doesn’t have a ton going for him to allow him to stand out among the pack of other teen heroes. His family dynamic at least helps to keep the character grounded, with each member of his family making somewhat of an impact on his decisions and choices. Damian Alcazar as Jamie’s father Alberto and Belissa Escobedo as his sister Milagro are some of the standouts, though George Lopez’s paranoid, conspiracy theorist Uncle Rudy often steals the scenes he’s in through what I can only assume is a lot of improv. The Rayes family feels like an authentic amalgamation of the Hispanic family dynamic, whose more emotional moments tended to resonate with me fairly well even if they’re a bit cliched at times. Speaking of cliche, the romance angle for Jamie here feels super forced and pretty void of chemistry. 

The villain department is unfortunately sorely lacking, due in part to a mixture of underdeveloped writing and aimless performances. Susan Sarandon’s Victoria Kord represents a personification of greed and industrial imperialism, as her company looks to gentrify its surroundings and militarize its operations to keep the less fortunate from opposing her. This kind of just leads to a run-of-the-mill evil business woman archetype that ends up being far from memorable. Sarandon’s a great actress, but the performance feels incredibly one-note and very sleepwalk-ish at times, but I do think this comes from the material she’s given. Raoul Trujillo’s Carapax serves as Victoria’s muscle, who more often than not is simply a vehicle for fight scenes rather than an interesting character. The film does try to give him some depth by the end through a very rushed montage, but there’s no real satisfying payoff to this as he spends the majority of the film as a pretty stereotypical archetype; the man of few words who comes to match the hero in abilities and weapons who constantly repeats that the hero is weak because he has a family and friends. It’s really just lazy writing and conflict, which is a pretty significant issue I have with the film. 

The film sets itself up to have a lot of themes that could have been spun into an interesting narrative, like gentrification, corporate overreach, or the over-militarization of police, but these are all made as light and forgettable as possible in order to to make the film more approachable. This unfortunately does little to give the film an impact or its own identity. It predictably moves through its reluctant hero story as blandly as possible, with very little personality shining through. The writing doesn’t exactly allow Blue Beetle to be as youthfully charismatic as Spider-Man, nor does it build a fun dynamic between host and symbiote akin to Venom. Can’t believe this movie made me say something nice about Venom. Basically what I’m getting at is that the film is derivative of other superhero films but can’t really outdo some of the elements it’s sharing with those films. It’s great that we finally have a Latino-led superhero film from one of the big studios, but surely we could have tried to accomplish more than just the easy part.

The writing also does a disservice to building upon the Blue Beetle mythos. While it’s not a bad thing to leave us in the dark on the exact origins of the Scarab, it still feels like we’re hung a little dry on understanding it better. The Scarab is said to be sentient and even has a name, but we don’t exactly get any kind of character out of it aside from bland, monotone AI. It’s said that the Scarab has to choose a worthy host to unlock its powers, but I don’t think we ever really get a great sense of what makes Jamie the optimal host. It’s not like he’s the first person to interact with it, as the film explains the origins of another Blue Beetle who was studying The Scarab but couldn’t access its power. But then the beginning of the film makes it seem like the Scarab was only just now being physically discovered. Something else I noticed was how much the film pushes that Jamie shouldn’t kill people, but then his family seems to straight up murder people later on in the film. I just thought that was funny. Everything just feels really half baked at times, not being thoroughly thought out and coasting off of the film’s charm, which isn’t exactly strong enough to let me be a little more forgiving. 

I will give this film points for a practical costume that, while occasionally smothered in CGI, does have some semblance of presence. In motion it looks pretty good, managing to give an expressionless face a decent amount of personality akin to how the Deadpool films tackled this same issue. Shame the same can’t really be said about the villain, who ends up looking like one of the Jaegers from Pacific Rim. The rest of the special effects can be a bit of a mixed bag, with some of the positives coming from the Blue Beetle tech in action, the film’s color grading and palette, and the film’s setting of Palmera City. We do get the expected poorly lit green screens from time to time, but honestly I didn’t find them to be nearly as bad as other superhero films from the past few years. There is one scene taking place inside a character’s head though that is so hazy and filled with lens flares that I thought I was in J.J. Abraham’s wet dream. The music is mostly forgettable, occasionally leaning on some underwhelming licensed song choices that just feel out of place. That’s unfortunately my takeaway at the end of the day; the film is just forgettable as hell.

Occasionally endearing family dynamics aside, Blue Beetle’s joy and excitement is only really impactful if you’re not worn out from constant onslaught from a genre struggling to re-invent itself, or this is your first superhero film. While not as much of a technical or narrative misfire as some of its contemporaries, it’s easy to see the old framework under its new coat of paint. There’s elements briefly touched upon that could have led to something truly fundamentally different for both DC and the genre as a whole, but the film is too content with settling into the status quo to be the breath of fresh air DC desperately needs. At the end of the day it’s not appalling to look at or grating to sit through,so that at least makes it better than Black Adam.

Rating

The Scarab

The Scarab is an other-worldly device that forms a symbiotic bond with a host of its choosing, giving them incredible abilities. The host in this film is Jamie Rayes, and for this drink I wanted to focus on some flavors that draw from both Rayes’ Mexican heritage and the Egyptian inspiration for the Scarab itself. This is a Margarita style cocktail that employs mezcal, lime juice and blue curacao for familiar flavors, but also employs mint and an anise-flavored liqueur called arak to give this drink a super interesting flavor profile. The final product has an upfront smokiness and tartness that evolves into a pleasant cooling sensation with notes of mint and licorice, capping off with a linger blueberry sweetness. If arak is hard to find in your area, try experimenting with a rinse or spritz of absinthe to try to replicate that anise taste.

Ingredients

• 1.5oz mezcal
• 1/2oz arak
• 1/2oz blue curacao
• 1oz Rose’s blueberry syrup
• 3/4oz lime juice
• 5-6 fresh mint leaves
• Rim: Black sugar

Instructions

1. Rub a lime wedge along the rim of a rocks glass, then coat the rim in black sugar.
2. Add mint leaves to a shaker and muddle.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients to the shaker and shake with ice.
4. Double strain into prepared glass over ice.