Blue Beetle is a very small beetle (review)

The new DC movie is a programmatic adventure, loosely inspired by Spider-Man. An ultra bland blockbuster devoid of ideas.

Character of comics absolutely unknown to the general public and passed by several publishing houses (including DC), Blue Beetle makes his first foray into the cinema. Released in theaters with almost no promotion – and even fewer screenings for the press – this film by Puerto Rican director Angel Manuel Soto stars Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña, seen in the series Cobra-Kai), a recent graduate who had just returned home to Palmera City. A kind of fictional El Paso where the rich monopolize the city center and begin to gentrify the poor neighborhoods. Jaime and his longtime immigrant Mexican family are on the wrong side of the river, and their house is about to be taken over by the huge local corporation, Kord.

But Jaime finds himself by chance in possession of a strange beetle of extraterrestrial origin belonging to the firm. The beast will choose him as its host: now equipped with armor, able to fly and generate weapons just by thought, the young man will be chased by the Kord militia because its CEO (Susanne Sarandon) wants to return take over his property to create an army of soldiers…

Unconcerned by its lack of originality, Blue Beetle follows to the letter the schema of the superhero film doped with digital special effects, clumsily inspired by Spider-Man (the bumbling hero) and the saga Fast and Furious (the power of familia latina until the overdose, barbecue in the garden included). A funny object, very colorful, made up we don’t really know why in homage to the 80s (on the menu: synthwave, blue light and purple lasers). And you have to pinch yourself very hard to end up accepting that the guy behind these perfectly generic images is indeed Pawel Pogorzelski, cinematographer of Ari Aster (Heredity, Midsommar, Beau is Afraid). Among the actors, we do what we can with what we have (caricatures of characters). Blockbuster without flavor or real lack of taste, lambda show never quite heartbreaking. A good definition of boredom.

Blue Beetle, by Angel Manuel Soto, with Xolo Maridueña, Bruna Marquezine, Susan Sarandon… Duration: 2h08.