Blue Beetle Movie Review
An alien scarab chooses Jaime Reyes to be its symbiotic host, bestowing the recent college graduate with a suit of armor that’s capable of extraordinary powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the superhero known as Blue Beetle.
Why did I come to this movie again?
I was on a plane, saw it on the list, and decided I wanted some mindless entertainment for a couple of hours. Honestly, I’ve felt pretty meh about this movie since it came out, which is why I hadn’t seen it yet.
4 of 5
Characters
I really liked Xolo Maridueña (the guy who played Jamie) in Cobra Kai, and I think he did a decent job here. Jamie’s character was…fine. Nothing super new or exciting as far as a superhero origin story goes.
Through the first part of the movie his family was annoying to the point of me almost switching to another show. I get that he had to bond with the beetle, but having his family treat something that could be priceless like a $5 ball from WalMart made me cranky. They mostly redeemed themselves by the end. I did like his dad, and who doesn’t love a warrior grandma?
The bad guy didn’t do much for me. She’s evil, wants money, and will do anything to get it. They tried to give her a backstory, but it fell flat for me.
The love interest was just kind of there for convenience of the plot.
The Beetle should have had a lot more screen time.
3 of 5
Did I care what happened?
I only sort of cared what happened. Without a strong draw to the characters I wasn’t terribly invested in what was going on.
3 of 5
Plot Holes
This is a superhero film, of course there are plot holes. In this case I felt like they underexplained anything that had to do with the actual plot.
For instance, the girl’s dad was a pseudo superhero? Tell me more about that. Give me more than a two-sentence explanation that leaves me with more questions than answers. And can anyone who has a license fly the Blue Beetle mobile?
Why did the beetle choose Jamie? They skirted the issue and we learned nothing more about it.
What exactly is the hierarchy at the big evil corporation?
Why couldn’t Jamie find a job after coming home from college? Pretty sure people in big cities hire college graduates no matter what neighborhood they’re from.
3 of 5
How many times did I yawn?
The pacing of this film was okay. Instead of yawning, let’s talk about how many times I rolled my eyes.
Many.
I liked that they used a minority family who were down on their luck, but just how many times can they remind us that anyone with money or power is evil? Approximately 85 in two hours. Show us once. If the writers do that correctly, you don’t need to tell the audience about it again. And again. And again.
4 of 5
Cool Factor
This film looked good. Granted, I was watching a small screen in the back of an airline seat, but I didn’t get thrown out of the story by any of the effects, and while they didn’t explain much about the Beetle, I did think it was cool.
4 of 5
The End
While the finale was super fun, it bordered on ridiculous. His family, who were barely competent at the beginning of the show, break him out of a high security facility? Like I said, it was fun. I laughed more than once, but I was also rolling my eyes a bit.
4 of 5
Overall Enjoyment
I’d give this one a meh. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible. I did have low expectations, so that probably helped.
I think this movie tried to straddle the line between campy and serious, and didn’t quite get the balance right.
3 of 5
Total: 28
That’s a Green Belt!
White Belt: 1-10
Yellow Belt: 11-19
Purple Belt: 20-25
Green Belt: 26-30
Brown Belt: 31-35
Black Belt: 36-40
