Recent college grad Jaime Reyes 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...
The DCEU is dead; long live the DCU…..hopefully. Let’s say I was cautiously optimistic heading into “Blue Beetle” given James Gunn’s intended plans for the series and despite WB doing everything they can to muck those plans over and make watching DC films impossible to enjoy.
In a weird roundabout way, the optimism did inevitably pay off.
There’s something pleasant about how straightforward Angel Manuel Soto’s direction is and how it narrowly avoids growing stale despite running into so many familiar pitfalls. So much lively energy is put into the execution of each scene to where even if the end result is never in doubt, it buoys the already boilerplate presentation an octave above what we’ve come to expect.
I can say with confidence that the cinematography is very solid; as this was the director of photography who did MIDSOMMAR and HEREDITARY, Pawel Pogorzelski uses all his shots wisely and does his best to elevate each scene beyond the most standard of TV angles and framing. The editing packed alongside that is clear and concise, the film has a sharp wit to its humor even if some of the comedy doesn’t land because the emotions do, its pacing is essentially stellar, the tone was fitting of the hijinks the presentation boasted and while I was initially excited for Bobby Krlic’s electronic/synthy 80’s-vibed score, the end result left me conflicted. Not every bits of it paid off but for the most part, I liked what I heard as an early 2000’s throwback. Just wished I loved it more than I did. Soundtrack, however, was enjoyable.
The action sequences and special effects are a far cry from the PS2-like graphics that we received in The Flash; they’re clean yet unremarkable most of the time and I have to say: the acting is pretty decent with one noticeable exception obviously phoning it in. Everyone else is either solid right out the gate or starts off underwhelming but gets slightly better the long the film progresses.
Off the bat, there’s a lot that’s familiar with this films story; it is essentially formulaic superhero cinema 101 after all but the major difference here in comparison to films like Fury of The Gods or Black Adam is despite its familiarity, this film actually has an identity to it and flaunts it proudly and with no remorse. The story rides heavily on a thankfully smaller scale than previous DC films, somehow taking itself less seriously than other DC films while still trying to have something important to say and having fun doing it. There’s a fundamental appeal in these types of films where the becoming matters just as much, if not more than the being itself and both the writing and direction the material tackles understands that.
Similar to the first Shazam, its decision to focus on the tight-knit family dynamic is well appreciated and makes the primary source of the film’s appeal feel important; while not entirely unique, the attempt is there to showcase the significance of the relationships in the characters’ lives and the impact they have on their individual journeys while proudly and loudly boasting its Mexican American roots and making room for an authenticity that elevates this somewhat familiar origin story by creating something resembling its own identity. But there’s also a undercurrent beneath all that regarding the economic disparity between the haves and have-nots, particularly regarding imperialist powers; more specifically, how you can do all the right things but your background, heritage and how you look will always limit your future no matter what you do or how hard you try. It’s merely hinted at with the villains but it hits a little harder with the Reye’s family since the conflict is centered mostly around them and highlights a very real issue without glossing over it or blowing it out of proportion. The story probably didn’t need such political undertones but the script manages to weave enough of it in to where it fits.
Sort of.
Of course, I still have to deal with the revelation that this film is an amalgamation of other superhero films that have already used this formula, taking bits and pieces from other separate movies to splice together something functional but unoriginal. The family dynamic was octaves better than Shazam’s dynamic but the other occasional superhero stuff reminded me a lot of Iron Man and Spider-Man: Homecoming in other such areas to where it’s impossible to not notice the EXACT comparison. I knew I wasn’t going into this movie expecting to see anything original but even I couldn’t help but notice how blatant they are.
Then there’s also the latter half of the antagonists: look, they do allude to his backstory enough to where we can see glimpses in how he was developed into what we see him as and it still ties into the theme of the movie but when we do get his backstory, it’s too little too late. And in some ways, it makes the rest of the film look a little worse for wear because what it shows is MARGINALLY BETTER and has MORE DEPTH than everything that came before it and yet the cliched nature of the film itself completely overshadows it and cause it to carry less weight than it probably should.
Really, any other characters in the film outside the Reyes family get little depth to them to make them stand out beyond what their purpose in the story is. Also, while most of the CG is held together really well, it does begin to fall apart near the very last action scene.
Regardless of its annoyances, I’m barely taking the win here.
