Blue Beetle premiered in El Paso, Texas on August 15, 2023, and is scheduled to soar into theaters in the United States on August 18, 2023, by Warner Bros. Pictures. So far, the critics’ reviews are generally favorable.
This will be the DC Super Hero’s first time on the big screen. The film, directed by Angel Manuel Soto, stars Xolo Maridueña in the title role as well as his alter ego, Jaime Reyes.
Recent college grad Jaime Reyes (Maridueña) returns home full of aspirations for his future, only to find that home is not quite as he left it. As he searches to find his purpose in the world, fate intervenes when Jaime unexpectedly finds himself in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology: the Scarab. When the Scarab suddenly chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, he is bestowed with an incredible suit of armor capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the Superhero Blue Beetle.
As of writing this, Blue Beetle is currency ranking 81% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes based on 92 Reviews. Here’s what critics are saying:
Owen Gleiberman from Variety said, “the brisk, cheeky, unabashed gizmo-happy triviality of Blue Beetle, a superhero origin story from the DC side of the tracks, is enough to make the film feel like a breath of fresh pulp.”
William Bibbiani from TheWrap called Blue Beetle “a delightful and satisfying superhero origin story if I’ve ever seen one. Tucked safely away from most of the cinematic universe shenanigans, Blue Beetle is a self-contained and smartly crafted film that ranks among the DCEU’s very best. Even though, admittedly, that doesn’t say nearly as much as it ought to.”
David Rooney from the Hollywood Reporter had this to say, “The affection that the writer, director and cast have poured into the family unit — with one foot in their cultural traditions and another in American life, with all its challenges — gives Blue Beetle vital flesh-and-blood stakes, along with a steady stream of disarming comedy. Rather than just, you know, saving the world from some evil destroyer, the survival of the Reyes folks, and their fearlessness in going up against a corporate malefactor with a full militia at her command, gives the movie a core of deep feeling that pays off throughout.”
Yolanda Machado from Entertainment Weekly said, “Blue Beetle is stuck somewhere in between what is known as the DCEU (i.e. the darker, grittier movies of the Zack Snyder-led “DC Extended Universe”) and the DCU (i.e. the newly revamped cinematic universe from the studio’s current guy-in-charge James Gunn). Much like the community it represents, the film doesn’t really belong to either, though canonically it references other DC heroes like the Flash and Superman. It stands alone, proudly and loudly boasting its Mexican American roots, and making room for an authenticity that elevates a somewhat familiar origin story by creating its own identity so hella Mexican American that if it were to be called anything else, it would be: ¡A huevo!
Translation: F— yeah!”
Brian Truitt from USA Today had this to say, “The DC movie universe has been holding out for a hero, and it might just be a 22-year-old Mexican college grad with a really cool family.”
David Fear from Rolling Stone said, “it’s not just that Jaime Reyes is the first Mexican-American superhero with his own solo film — which is indeed a victory unto itself. It’s the fact that this new addition to an extended universe exists in an environment totally informed by, and reflecting back an experience that doesn’t usually get this sort of cinematic real estate. These are Latino neighborhoods, several generations deep, in what appears to be a metropolis with a large Latino population and brimming with Latino influences. The Reyes themselves may be a family that appears to have stepped out of a sitcom already in progress. But they’re also a tight family unit, one that radiates a sense of cultural specificity without dipping into outright caricature.”
Michael Phillips from Chicago Tribune proclaimed, “Blue Beetle works, basically, and that puts it ahead of the game for most DC Comics-derived movies.”
Jake Coyle from Associated Press had this to say, “Blue Beetle, the final entry in a now defunct wave of DC films, distinguishes itself in other ways. Jaime’s family is continually along for the ride, making up his supporting cast when the big fight comes. (The grandmother’s younger days as a revolutionary emerge, comically.) Superheroes are ultimately empowerment fantasies, though they’ve often got away from that. Blue Beetle manages to come closer than most in evoking the thrill of the powerless suddenly handed cosmic strength.”
REELated:
Of course, you can’t please everyone and few top critics deemed the film “rotten.”
Maya Phillips from the New York Times wasn’t impressed, “This unremarkable story, along with cheap-looking visual effects and Soto’s colorless direction, is a prime example of somnambulist filmmaking that lulls the audience into a mindless stupor.”
Michael O’Sullivan from the Washington Post seemed to feel the same way, “Ultimately, it devolves into the kind of chaotic clash of robot-suited antagonists that has become, in this era of the comic movie, demoralizingly repetitive and, dare I say it, boring.”
Richard Roeper from the Chicago Sun-Times said, “This is a mostly by-the-numbers origin story with underwhelming VFX, a disappointingly cartoonish villain and a final battle sequence and epilogue that follow the pattern of a dozen or more previous superhero origin stories.”
David Ehrlich from indieWire had this to say, “For a film that incessantly natters on about Jaime’s purpose, Blue Beetle has bafflingly little sense of what its own might be. “That progress is not meant for us,” Milagro laments as she looks out at the corporate businesses that are corrupting the soul of her family’s neighborhood, but it’s unclear what progress this movie hopes to claim for them instead. After all, what progress could possibly be found in a genre that has no concept of how to move forward?”
Starring alongside Maridueña (Cobra Kai) are Adriana Barraza (Rambo: Last Blood, Thor), Damían Alcázar (Narcos, Narcos: Mexico), Elpidia Carrillo (Mayans M.C., the Predator films), Bruna Marquezine (Maldivas, God Save the King), Raoul Max Trujillo (the Sicario films, Mayans M.C.), with Oscar winner Susan Sarandon (Monarch, Dead Man Walking), and George Lopez (the Rio and Smurf franchises). The film also stars Belissa Escobedo (American Horror Stories, Hocus Pocus 2) and Harvey Guillén (What We Do in the Shadows).
Soto (Charm City Kings, The Farm) directs from a screenplay by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer (Miss Bala), based on characters from DC. John Rickard and Zev Foreman are producing, with Walter Hamada, Galen Vaisman and Garrett Grant serving as executive producers.
Watch the trailer here:
A Warner Bros. Pictures Presentation, a Safran Company Production, Blue Beetle hits theaters in North America August 18, 2023 and is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.
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Joia DaVida reports on the entertainment industry in both Chicago and Los Angeles.
