‘Blue Beetle’ Review: Meet the New First Family of the DCU
5/5 pots of Vicks VapoRub
The Blue Beetle trailer already promised a fun film while making a strong case for why this particular second-tier DC Comics hero deserved to be brought into the DCU—namely, that a young hero would breathe lightness and humor into a slate of films that has been very self-serious.
Not only does Blue Beetle deliver on those promises, but it offers a poignant, grounded superhero story that shows what can happen when you put a WB-size budget behind a Latine story and give the storytelling reins over to Latines so they can tell it. Written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer and directed by Ángel Manuel Soto, Blue Beetle opens with Carapax (Raoul Max Trujillo), a mysterious, hulking man with a metal arm, and Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon), current CEO of Kord Industries and Ted Kord’s aunt.
Ted Kord, the previous Blue Beetle, mysteriously disappeared years earlier. Feeling slighted by her family, who have kept Kord Industries under the control of its men despite her involvement in its formation, Victoria swiped the company out from under her nephew. Now, Victoria and Carapax seek “the scarab,” an ancient piece of alien biotechnology that was lost to Ted, but that Victoria hopes to find and basically use to create Robocops (with Carapax as the first prototype), make Kord Industries heaps of money, and solidify her corporate legacy.
Meanwhile, on “the other side of the tracks,” Jaime Reyes (Cobra Kai‘s Xolo Maridueña) has returned home after graduating from college, and the entire Reyes clan—his parents, Alberto and Rocio (Damían Alcázar and Elpidia Carrillo), his Nana (Adriana Barraza), his sister Milagro (Belissa Escobedo), and his Uncle Rudy (George Lopez)—shows up to meet him at the airport.
This is a running gag in the film. Wherever Jaime goes, his entire family is never far behind. This both makes him feel loved and embarrasses the hell out of him at regular intervals. Ultimately, it’s the driving force of the entire film. Upon returning home, he learns that several misfortunes have befallen the family while he’s been away. As only a recent college graduate can, he naïvely believes that he and his new degree are going to be what save the family. Then, reality sets in, and he takes a job cleaning at a Kord hotel with Milagro.
It’s there that Jaime meets Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine), Ted’s daughter, who sees Victoria’s management of Kord Industries as an affront to her father’s values. When she learns that Victoria has found the scarab and plans to create an army of super-cops, Jenny becomes a wrench in her aunt’s efforts, spontaneously involves Jaime, and is inadvertently responsible for Jaime ending up with the scarab.
Victoria and Carapax try to get it back. Wackiness ensues.
Everyone in the Reyes family is a hero
Remember that running gag? That every member of Jaime’s family always shows up for him all the time? This remains true even as Jaime’s adventures become heightened and more dangerous. His first transformation into Blue Beetle happens in front of them, unlike other heroes who get to keep their heroics a secret, and the family remains part of his adventures. Without giving too much away, every Reyes contributes to resolving the problems that come up in the film in ways that feel real and true to character.
Meanwhile, Jenny is actively fighting against her aunt, who is stomping all over her nephew’s legacy to shape Kord Industries in her image. Jenny’s connection to family after her mother’s death and her father’s disappearance is non-existent. A big reason she’s drawn to Jaime is that she admires his close-knit relationship with his family and wishes she had something like that herself.
So, while the film is called Blue Beetle, the Reyeses are all stars of the film, and it’s their chemistry that is Blue Beetle’s greatest strength.
Maridueña has already done great work on Cobra Kai, but he’s come into his own as an actor in Blue Beetle. He absolutely brings “scattered young dude in his early 20s” to the proceedings, but his Jaime is also an emotionally mature deep thinker, and he’s compelling to watch. Maridueña absolutely has the star power to carry a superhero tentpole like this.
Alcázar and Carrillo as his parents and Barraza as Nana are warm and loving presences, but they’re also hilarious, mischievous, and flawed. They’re lived-in, real people, not the trope-y “hardworking Latine parents/abuelita” we usually see in American films about “the Latinx Experience.”
Even more refreshing is Lopez’s Uncle Rudy, a dude who is traditionally Mexican in so many ways, and also a brilliant engineer, lover of 1980s rock, and Blue Beetle enthusiast who you can totally see becoming Jaime’s “guy behind the computer.” Rudy’s also somewhat of a conspiracy theorist, but the film grounds his conspiratorial nature firmly in context.
Several members of the Reyes family are undocumented, so every day is a risk for them. The heightened suspicion of the government and of gentrifying corporations, even in this reality where superheroes exist, remains absolutely valid. Just ’cause you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.
But the true star of the Reyes family even without a scarab is the brilliant and badass Milagro, played with a perfect balance of warmth and caustic humor by Escobedo. Her relationship with Jaime is gorgeous and genuine, and honestly, if she somehow got a spinoff film out of all of this, I’d give it all of my money. Milagro for President!
A substantive superhero film
In addition to being a hilarious and sweet superhero film that focuses on a Latino hero who hasn’t gotten attention outside of comics, Blue Beetle is a love letter to Mexican culture, to Latines, and to the importance of family.
However, it also has a lot to say about the world and does so without disclaimers or qualifiers. Issues of immigration, gentrification, white saviorism, and colonization are all touched on, but it never feels heavy-handed. Soto’s direction and Dunnet-Alcocer’s script are so clear about tone and point of view that they can afford to approach these topics with humor and superpowered freneticism, confident that their messages will still get across.
And oh my God, there are so many jokes in here that are clearly just for the Latines. At the screening I attended, there were the jokes that everyone laughed at, and there were the cultural references that about half the audience laughed at immediately. I love that—small moments that don’t detract from the rest of the film, but that say very clearly to any Latines watching, You’re our audience. This is for you.
As I left the screening, I saw a Latine family stop and take a photo in front of a Blue Beetle poster. Mom took the photo as three elementary school-age kids, two boys and a girl, all held up copies of Blue Beetle comics and smiled big smiles. I dang near cried.
Blue Beetle is an entertaining, buoyant, hilarious nugget of a film that will make you feel deeply, and might even make you think deeply, if you let it. If this is a sign of things to come in the DCU, I’m here for it!
Blue Beetle arrives in North America exclusively in theaters Friday, August 18, with showings kicking off Thursday evening.
(featured image: Warner Bros. Pictures/DC Comics)
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