One of the oft-cited issues with the superhero movie genre of late is an absence of humanity in the world that the superhero occupies. Very rarely do these movies seem much concerned with the people the superhero is ostensibly there to protect. I brought this up in my review of Across the Spider-Verse -a movie that remembers the importance of grounding its character in the relatable context of the everyday people who matter to him. It was refreshing to see one of these movies recognize that. Another criticism often heard of this genre is its general avoidance of earnestness for its own sake, in favour of dour grittiness, milquetoast humour, or intense attention to plotting. The original Superman and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies are the gold standard for this kind of sincerity, missing most of the time in the genre’s prevalence today.
And yet of all things, it is Blue Beetle that does well on both these points; an unusually earnest superhero movie that centres as much as its lead character the family he is most emboldened to protect. Blue Beetle is not a popular superhero, though he is a classic one -almost as old as Batman in terms of longevity. This incarnation, a Mexican-American kid called Jaime Reyes -played by Xolo Maridueña in a stupendous break-out performance, is the first Latine character at the heart of a major superhero movie. And it would be easy to think of this as a cynical choice by DC, that shallow kind of representation in pursuit of a Black Panther-style phenomenon; but from someone always trying to be mindful of that, let me say that the Latine texture of this film is not mere dressing. It commits, and is a much better movie as a result.
That’s not to say Blue Beetle is as confident, compelling, or thoughtful as the like of Across the Spider-Verse or Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 -the two stand-out superhero flicks of the year. But it hovers not so far beneath as an unexpected model in many respects for what the superhero genre ought to embody and prioritize -both in style and subject matter. The film is directed by Ángel Manuel Soto, who while being the kind of little-known emerging director superhero studios like to latch onto, isn’t so homogeneous a visionary -allowed here and capable of an array of intelligent, compelling choices. He’s not afraid of embracing campiness or letting the story sit in the unreality of its world -one that looks far more interesting than any of the main universe DC movies so far (Palmera City is some kind of cross between Miami and Hong Kong). He plays around creatively with the action and humour scenes, bringing even a touch of body horror to the initial hero transformation -and yet he roots it all in a very resonant and perhaps even personal space of family.
The Reyes clan is the foundation of Blue Beetle and a stunningly strong one at that. One of the most immediately endearing units in a superhero movie in quite some time, Soto very organically and efficiently establishes their chemistry, history, and their importance in Jaime’s life. It helps that Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer’s script treats them with immense sympathy and a charming humour; and also that the actors lean into their parts with believability, taking to this lived-in rapport. Belissa Escobedo is a lot of fun as Jaime’s sarcastic sister Milagro, and George Lopez is obviously a scene-stealer as the gold-hearted but layabout conspiracy theorist Uncle Rudy. Maridueña’s interactions with them are some of the most unexpectedly enjoyable moments of the movie.The film looks to great veteran Mexican stars for the elders: Elpidia Carrillo as mother Rocio, Adriana Barraza as grandmother Nana (who gets the last act’s best running joke), but most affecting of all is Damián Alcázar as patriarch Alberto, who brings a steady gravitas and immaculate sweetness to the part of the most important figure in Jaime’s life. This is a movie that actually gets a lot of mileage out of its heart, and Alcázar is a key purveyor of that.
But where the real warmth comes from is in the open implication that the strength of this family bond was built through hardship. The long journey of the Reyes’ immigration is alluded to, but the movie also openly addresses gentrification –the family lost their home and business to an expanding conglomerate shortly before the movie began, and now have to live in an impoverished neighbourhood in the shadow of the pristine city. It’s what forces the law-educated Jaime into taking small housekeeping jobs. And of course an atmosphere of racism constantly creeps in on their lives, from micro-aggressions like a secretary refusing after multiple corrections to pronounce Jaime’s name properly, to more violent and callous assaults on their home. While the movie isn’t ostensibly about Mexican-American identity, Soto intrinsically links the arms of systemic racism and disenfranchisement to the more immediate and ruthless targeting of Jaime and his family by powerful capitalist entities, to devastating results.
It occurs to me that I haven’t addressed the plot –though in this the movie isn’t particularly exceptional. While the writing for the family is often quite charming, it doesn’t much translate to the other spheres of the story, which already play in some very basic and even derivative beats for this genre. The scarab, an ancient blue jewel that comes into Jaime’s possession, absorbing itself into his body and altering his physiology to give him the Blue Beetle powers, is essentially just Iron Man’s arc reactor; a high-tech personal defence system capable of doing whatever the plot necessitates it too in a given moment –and of course sought after by the evil weapons manufacturing company perfectly willing to sacrifice whomever for it. Neither Susan Sarandon as the greedy mega-corporate villain nor Bruna Marquezine as the nice mega-corporate love interest have much substance, despite the potential that is there in their fractured familial relationship. Raoul Max Trujillo as the henchman muscle and Jaime’s only physical adversary, has a compelling story in his relationship of exploitation to Sarandon’s character, but the film has no interest in exploring it beyond a flashback allusion to a very heart-wrenching narrative. He also has some of the most egregiously lazy dialogue -a taunt about love for family being a weakness for example. Visually, the movie has some colour and style, but the effects themselves are still rather shallow and unremarkable. When Jaime goes into space by accident and in his other adjustments to the Blue Beetle armour, there’s nothing of much weight to anything. Jaime at least doesn’t have his face hidden during the climactic fight but it’s otherwise dully rendered and choreographed like any other superhero fight scene with a fairly identically matched opponent. And even its messaging falls a bit flat at times, failing to adequately discuss let alone resolve the issue of capitalist exploitation of immigrant workers. It vividly points to what’s wrong but doesn’t make room for the option of sustainable change.
Nevertheless I can’t dislike a movie that is this emotionally invested, that has one of the more genuinely upsetting scenes in a superhero film in years. Due to DC’s track record this year and Blue Beetle’s lack of popularity as a character, this movie was being written off by fans and critics alike before it even came out -and I was among them. Nobody seemed to particularly care about this movie, and that’s bearing out in its poor box office. But Blue Beetle is much better than could have been guessed, a movie that honestly hearkens back to more classical superhero fare like Raimi’s Spider-Man or even the first Iron Man -and that for whatever its faults, embraces the format and wears its heart on its sleeve.
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