Blue Beetle

As DC Entertainment and Marvel Studios battle it out to see who garners the most popularity, not to mention, the most box office receipts for this year's summer film season, the competition is fierce.  As the season wanes, it looks to be a tie even with the film being offered now which is DC's "Blue Beetle". The one aspect that this film has over a good portion of the rest is that family is certainly at the core of this.

Recent college grad Jaime Reyes (Xolo Mariduena) returns home full of aspirations for the future, only to find that home is not quite as he left it--a lot of turmoil going on with family, namely his father, Alberto (Damien Alcazar), his mother, Rocio (Elpidia Carrillo) and his sister, Milagro (Belissa Escobedo). 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 technology: the Scarab. When the Scarab suddenly chooses, by will, 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 Super Hero BLUE BEETLE. 

Others to round out the cast are Bruna Marquezine as Jenny Kord, Becky G as Khaji-Da (voice), Adriana Barraza as Nana, Susan Sarandon as Victoria Kord, George Lopez as Uncle Rudy Reyes, Raoul Max Trujillo as Carapax and Harvey Guillen as Dr. Sanchez.

This was directed with such grit and wit by Angel Manuel Soto ("Frailty" '12, "The Farm" '15, "Charm City Kings" '20) plus shorts, TV and a video. With his feature films and the plethora of shorts this filmmaker has to his credit, it's no doubt that Soto was able to, not only give us an adventurous project, but a humorous one as well. The way he was able to extract emotions from his actors ranging fro serious to lighthearted was amazing. His staging was just a bit off in a couple of very few places, but he carried this off in spades. It was cleverly written by Gareth Dunnet=Alcocer ("Miss Bala" '19) plus shorts. The character of Jaime played by Mariduena was genius in that he wasn't cocky--in fact he didn't even want to be a super hero, however the Scarab knew better, and this made for more of a 'real' person instead of someone that has an ego problem, and this is talented writing. I'm not sure where they got this actor--maybe he does a fair amount of TV, but he was a very believable and credible Jaime. He will go far. Really, other than a couple of very small places of choppiness, this script was simply spot on. If you liked the writing of this, Alcocer's "El Muerto" is in pre production. And, I can't help but think that veteran actors, Susan Sarandon and George Lopez just had a thrill ride with this considering their roles were c somewhat hammy. Those are always fun roles for any actor. And considering that ILM (Industrial, Light & Magic) and Digital Domain designed the brunt of the visual effects, made this an even more fun film to see. 

Certainly if you like the "Blue Beetle" DC comics, you'll love this, however if you're like me, and have never heard of Blue Beetle, you'll still like this since it is directed with grit and written with such feeling. The one aspect that I definitely enjoyed was the element that family was everything, and it's so nice to see a film that represents that aspect.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                Rated: PG-13                                      127mins.