Blue Beetle Movie Review – Fantastic New Beginnings For The DCU

This Movie Will Contain Spoilers!!!

An alien scarab chooses college graduate Jaime Reyes to be its symbiotic host, bestowing the teenager with a suit of armor that’s capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the superhero known as Blue Beetle.

Overview

While going through this review, This will essentially be based on being the first introduction to the new and improved DCU with Blue Beetle being the unofficial first movie of that side of the new DC/Warner Bros.

This was originally going to be a HBO Max Exclusive movie but I am so glad that this is a movie that is in theaters. It deserves to be seen on the big screen.

This is a family-friendly, emotionally-driven, and action-packed movie that sets a tone for the DCU going forward and has a massive future within the DCU. I truly hope this does well enough to get a trilogy.

Story

The story begins as a heartfelt story. A son returning from graduating college to find his family struggling to keep a hold of their house. He sets out to get a job to help them unbeknownst to him, his and his family’s lives are about to change for the craziest while they deal with change, loss, and more.

The story showcases that not everyone is in the world of science for good. We see that with Victoria Kord and how drastically different she is from Jenny Kord. Both are so different that you do not realize just how evil Victoria is until the final fight of the movie.

We get to see Jaime’s story of learning to control and adapt to this alien technology that has attached itself to his back while he’s dealing with the loss of his father because of this wild adventure he’s found himself on.

Ultimately, this is a story of self-belief, finding out how strong you are, and finding out that you can stand up to the higher powers and become a hero.

Characters

The characters in this movie were so perfectly cast it’s unbelievable that such a great cast could exist. I loved each and every cast member within this movie, especially the main hero and main villain. They both bounced off of each other so incredibly well that it felt true to what we were seeing play out on screen.

Let’s start with Xolo Mariduena as Jaime Reyes. This was such a fantastic cast. I can’t imagine anyone else in this role other than Xolo. I only know him from Cobra Kai but even from that he was fantastic and this role will only catapult his stardom more.

The main villain for me was Carapax played by the talented Raoul Max Trujillo. I know him from playing Taza in one of my favorite TV shows, Mayans MC. From the moment he showed up in this movie he was a menace, a straight-up badass whose life was built on pain. You truly felt that at the end with his flashbacks.

The Reyes family was rounded off by his uncle, his father, his mother, his sister, and his grandma. This family felt REAL. Typically within a movie or TV show, you can sort of feel like “Yes, this is a fake family” but I don’t know, with this one you got the sense that they truly cared. I do not know if it was because of the writing or just acting but it was really great.

Bruna Marquezine is Jenny Kord. A badass opposite to Jaime who helps and leads him on this wild adventure. She was incredible. She was badass, she had her funny moments and just generally was a nice person.

I can’t leave out Becky G as the voice of the scarab, Khaji-Da. Although we didn’t get to see Becky, you could tell this was her. Her unique voice as a singer stands out massively. Susan Sarandon was Victoria Kord and she can truly deliver an evil persona it’s unreal.

For the full cast list, you can visit IMDB by clicking here.

Hype

I feel like the hype for this movie has been incredibly weird. Especially from a certain fandom. The movie has generally been liked by the masses on the internet. I was excited when it was announced and when more so when Xolo was cast in the lead role.

Favorite Moments

1. The introduction to the movie. It was hilariously funny. Not the usual opening scene but seeing Jaime Reyes return to his hometown of Palmera City after graduating college and reuniting with his family. He soon realizes that his family will be losing their home so he begins to look for a job and this is where the adventure begins.

2. The moment Jaime gets the suit. His family teases him into opening the box and touching the scarab. When he does it attaches and activates causing a kind of dark scene. We see Jaime get thrown around his family home, with black goo stuff in his mouth, we see his clothes get burnt off and he is immediately thrown into a training exercise.

3. The first true fight scene with Jaime and OMAC. This was a back-and-forth fight, with the scarab wanting to kill but Jaime not wanting to. We get to see Omac get the best of him until Jaime’s uncle helps out. For a first fight scene, this was just a tease of what fight scene was to come.

4. The scene where Victoria sends her arm to Reyes’s house to capture Jaime’s family. This was such a great and emotional scene for Jaime personally. We see his family get captured until he comes down to save them, letting his anger slightly get the best of him until he sees his father die because of a heart attack before getting captured.

5. The fight scene with Omac at the end. Jaime truly lets his anger take control, this fight was so heavily inspired by Injustice 2 that you could instantly tell. The fight scene on his own was majestic. This was the scene where Jaime and Khaji-Da truly become one with each other. As Jaime is attacking Omac and nearly killing him, the scarab tells him “Jaime, we don’t kill”. I thought this was such a fantastic and perfect time for the line to be said.

Dislikes

Honestly, I have no dislikes.

Recommend?

100%. This is a fun, emotionally-impactful movie that delivers so heartfelt moments but ultimately uses that momentum to catapult the badass fight scenes and story to deliver such a great introduction to what will become a fantastic character within the DCU.

Verdict

Overall a fantastic introduction to Jaime Reyes within the new DCU. The movie was an absolute blast from start to finish. Wasn’t overloaded with forced humor it had it correct. The story revolving around the scarab and Jaime was special to see. You can truly see that they played Injustice 2 to do the action scenes.

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Rating: 9.7/10

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Blue Beetle is available in cinemas worldwide. You can visit here for more information on Blue Beetle.