'Blue Beetle' review: Superhero movies just got fun again

Let's just be frank: Superhero movies of late have sucked.

The MCU took some of its most wacky winsome characters and pitched them into sequels that were either eyesores (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) or morose muck (Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3). The DCEU has been winding down with a whimper, bouncing from the dud-on-arrival Black Adam to the underwhelming Shazam! Fury of the Gods to the historic bomb that is The Flash. Only Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has bucked this downward trend, perhaps because it's just outside these fatigued franchises or because animation need not to bow to the same pressure to be so serious.

Finally, there's Blue Beetle, a live-action superhero movie coming to theaters that is unapologetically full of life, joy, and fun. But don't mistake it for fluff.

Directed by Angel Manuel Soto, who drew critics' praise in 2020 with his indie coming-of-age drama Charm City Kings, Blue Beetle follows twenty-something Mexican American Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) as a brush with some ancient alien tech turns him into an accidental (or destined?) superhero. Unlike Batman or Superman or Wonder Woman, this DC hero isn't at it alone. Forget sidekicks. His whole family has his back, and your whole family will cheer as they kick ass altogether.

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Who is Blue Beetle?

Credit: Warner Bros.

Though he's been around since 1940, this blue-suited supe isn't nearly as famous as the Justice League's heavy hitters. For those more familiar with superhero blockbusters than their source material, Blue Beetle is a bit like Spider-Man meets Venom meets Green Lantern. Hear me out.

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Like Spider-Man's Peter Parker (or Miles Morales for that matter), Jaime Reyes is a diligent and smart working-class kid who lives with his family in a humble neighborhood within a bigger, flashier metropolis. Plus, he gets his powers from a bug, though instead of a radioactive spider, we're talking about a scarab that's an extraterrestrial symbiote looking for a host to partner with. It even talks to him — so like Venom, even down to the slippery black goo transformation that turns an average dude into a superhuman.

However, the alien symbiote known as Khaji-Da (voiced by Becky G) has a much chiller vibe, though she's just as willing to pitch her partner into peril as Venom is. But hey! At least she gives Jaime the power to fight, shield, fly, and manifest any weapon he can imagine. There's the Green Lantern bit.

What's Blue Beetle about?

Credit: Warner Bros.

While this hero might sound like a mash-up, Blue Beetle breaks the mold by celebrating Jaime's greatest strength, his family, rather than defaulting to a story about yet another brooding solo knight.

After graduating from college, he comes home to learn that his parents (Elpidia Carrillo and Damián Alcázar) are in dire financial straights, as gentrification caused by Kord Industries has tripled their rent. Everyone in the household is chipping in to help, from affectionate but no-nonsense Nana (Adriana Barraza) to Jaime's sarcastic teen sister, Milagro (Belissa Escobedo), to their wild child uncle Rudy (George Lopez, sporting a long gray beard and matching rat tail, a fistful of chunky silver rings, and overgrown punk vibes, down to his black nail polish).

For Jaime's part, when he gets a chance to work for executive Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine), he leaps at the chance, taking a parcel she insists he keep safe — but not open. Little does he know that she's in a blood feud against her aunt, Kord Industries' warmongering CEO Vicky (Susan Sarandon, relishing playing a truly bad bitch) and that this parcel contains the scarab. Naturally, Jaime's super-involved, very vocal family urges him to open the box, and next thing you know, boom: Blue Beetle.

But hey, at least they're with him through thick and thin. We're not talking Aunt May occasionally rubbing elbows with supervillains, either. Each family member uses their own set of special skills — engineering ingenuity, emotional intelligence, weapons training, and the willingness to backhand a baddie — to aid Jaime as he strives to topple Vicky's evil plan to hack the scarab and use it to build countless super-soldiers. You don't need to have superpowers to be brave, and the Reyes family illustrates that with panache.

Blue Beetle's family dynamic sets this superhero story apart.

Credit: Warner Bros.

Sure, other superheroes have families, biological, adopted, and found, but none quite like this. Superb casting brings together a crackling ensemble whose members talk over each other, cling to one another, and sling the kind of one-liners that only a relative can get away with. All this clamor, chaos, and warmth makes them feel like an authentic family.

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Maridueña, to his credit, has an openness that makes him a compelling hero, devoid of the furrowed-brow grousing that's become cliched. With wide-eyed wonder and charismatic earnestness, he shoulders the film ably, whether throwing himself into the physical comedy of symbiote orientation, battling back with physical might and emotional exaltations, or flirting clumsily with the sleek Jenny. But the biggest reactions from the audience come when the family is together.

Part of this is how Soto weaves in elements of Latine culture, from popping in clips of beloved TV shows to having the family bop along to familiar songs, tossing a chancla, and speaking Spanish and Spanglish. All of it builds the world and, more specifically, the home of the Reyes family. It feels like a real place, full of warmth, love, and the smell of homemade meals.

Then there's the combined charms of this rambunctious crew. Where Jaime's father is the strong silent type, his mother clucks and coos. His rebellious sister is just as likely to drop a devastating witticism as she is a deuce in a rich lady's private bathroom. His grandma goes from being a comedic reaction-shot queen to the action hero I didn't realize the DCEU needed. And trust me, you'll be cheering when her braids drop. But man, Rudy is a scene-stealer.

Lopez is known for broad comedy, but here there's a whiff of Cheech and Chong grunginess, as well as their signature guilelessness. In some sense, everyone has an Uncle Rudy, that relative who is the misfit but seemingly loving every minute of their bad reputation. From the moment he called Batman a fascist in the trailer, we should have known Rudy would be breaking through in a big way. Here, Lopez delivers an endless array of throwaway jokes, a perfectly timed pratfall, and a generally chaotic energy that makes every interaction excitingly unpredictable. Yet this doesn't come off as showboating, because of how expertly knitted Rudy is into the fabric of the wider family. His thread, while wilder than the others, helps bring the whole together to dazzle.

The takeaway here is more Fun Uncles in superhero movies, please.

Blue Beetle isn't all fun and games.

Credit: Warner Bros.

While Soto and his spectacular cast have brewed a magical wallop of exuberance and joy in Blue Beetle, the film is not without stakes or loss. The villain is a gentrifying real estate mogul and warmongering weapons dealer who doesn't care who gets hurt in her quest for wealth and power. And while Jamie's scarab is designed to protect him, his family — brave and resilient as they are — don't share in his relative invincibility. Soto manages to shift from the heady rush of superhero action and the rollicking fun of hanging with the Reyes family with a low point that is so poignantly presented that this critic literally got chills. And yet Blue Beetle won't be brought down by it, resisting this genre's tendency toward the maudlin. That's not who this family is.

Where Blue Beetle suffers for me is in the design. The suit, being what it is, leans into the problem with many live-action superheroes: It looks silly. Not like extraterrestrial tech but like rubber and plastic, and odd, with scarab prongs protruding awkwardly over Jamie's shoulders. Thankfully, the face-shielding mask does intermittently open so that Maridueña's expressive countenance can keep us grounded. Still, this requisite costume is an impediment. This rising star is funnier when he can use a tracksuit as a comedic punchline and communicate with his dark, soulful eyes or by flashing an insecure smile. The suit suffocates much of this, chasing a look that's sleek and intimidating in the comics but chiefly awkward in live-action.

Overall, though, Blue Beetle is a breath of fresh air in a stagnant superhero landscape of gray cities, cheap fan service, and drudgery masquerading as depth. Soto has brought together a captivating ensemble that not only gives us a new hero to root for but also a whole wonderful, warm, and wacky family to embrace. While there is plenty of action, from hand-to-hand fighting and flying to an almost comical amount of vehicular damage, where Blue Beetle really delivers is in being unabashedly fun and funny. It's superhero entertainment without a chip on its shoulder, and it's about time.

Blue Beetle opens in theaters Aug. 18.