Blue Beetle (2023) is a fairly fun & engaging movie that forms part of the DC Extended Universe alongside characters like Superman and The Flash who incidentally both get namedropped in this movie.
Blue Beetle has some well composed action, some fresh humour, some funky music, some cool special effects, and some entertaining cast members.
The lead character is played entertainingly by Hispanic American actor Xolo Maridueña (from Cobra Kai, the recent Karate Kid spin-off satire series) and the lead female protagonist is played by Brazilian actress & model Bruna Marquezine who is equally attractive so they make a convincing couple. In real life, Bruna is nearly 6 years older than Xolo, and is almost the same height as him but looks taller than him when wearing heels. Nevertheless, this movie has them in suitable enough roles to make the chemistry convincing – it even makes jokes about them having a reverse of the classical roles, since he’s a broke college graduate in need of a job and she’s a famous businesswoman capable of dragging him out of the dirt.
As far as this movie’s core concept goes, the Blue Beetle is some kind of hard-to-control sentient alien technological lifeform with a mind of its own. It bonds with a host body and protects it, like a cross between Iron Man, Deadpool and Venom. Like Venom, it’s initially hard to control, and there’s some black goo going on as the Blue Beetle initially bonds with its host. It can also transform into any shape imagined. Like Iron Man, there’s a digital visor and force fields when it’s flying & fighting, and it shoots energy beams and things like that. And like Deadpool, it does a few ninja moves and has a tight rubber body suit with a pair of horn-like adornments coming up the back and over the head (a pair beetle claws in this case; a pair of swords in Deadpool’s case).
The main antagonists in this movie are played by Susan Sarandon (brains) and Raoul Trujillo (braun). They both do a fair job of acting here – especially Susan considering she’s already in her mid 70s here – she’s got a bit of a Killary vibe about her in this movie. Raoul plays the man whose life she saved, then altered with alien energy & technology from the Blue Beetle to give him superpowers to rival Xolo’s character. He eventually becomes a good guy and kills Susan’s character by unnecessarily blowing himself up, as if suicide is not one of the biggest sins of all. Bad influence much?
The main down side to this movie though, is how it’s pushing pills and massively over-glorifying college from the outset, then proceeds to show the star of the movie getting way too affectionate with his smartphone, resting it on his chest, promoting extremely unhealthy levels of exposure. So ultimately, this movie boils down to just another Hollywood con job. No surprise, is it? Still, if you’re able to overlook these filthy shortcomings, to enjoy the strengths of this movie for what they’re worth, you’ll probably be sufficiently entertained upon first viewing, and probably also when re-viewing a year later. There’s no macho superhero here – it’s got a soft male lead – but he’s a likeable character and is well suited to the fun, lightly comedic and somewhat juvenile vibe of this movie. It’s not a streamlined grown up martial arts action hero movie by any means. It’s nothing like Bloodsport. It’s probably mainly made for kids, which makes the downsides even more disturbing.
All things considered, I rate this movie as Decent, for action hero movie connoisseurs, compared to everything else that’s out there. I rate it on a par with the likes of Black Panther, Bloodshot and Jupiter Ascending, since it has similar levels of pros and cons to those movies.
I deem it most suitable for mid-aged children, but stress it needs a highly educated form of parental guidance to counter the problems mentioned earlier. It can also be very suitable for older children and even adults if they feel young at heart.