Blue Beetle Trailer Reminds You That Blue Beetle is a Thing
Remember Blue Beetle, the other DC movie coming out this year? Me neither, but it’s got a trailer! Blue Beetle is the story of Jaime Reyes, who is given a cybernetic scarab beetle that attaches to him and turns him into a superhero (as near as I can tell; the trailer is a little jumbled). Xolo Maridueña stars as Reyes, with Bruna Marquezina, Adriana Barraza, Damián Alcázar, George Lopez, and Susan Sarandon in supporting roles. Directed by Angel Manuel Soto and written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, Blue Beetle will arrive in theaters on August 18, 2023, and you can see the trailer below:
As soon as George Lopez showed up, I said, “Oh, it’s this kind of superhero movie.” You know what I mean; like in Black Adam when that idiot brother of the love interest was shoved in to be an ill-placed force of comedy fool’s gold. But based on the trailer, Blue Beetle isn’t going to have the action scenes of that movie, and it leans heavily towards broad comedy. That’s okay in theory; Shazam! did the same thing. The difference is that Shazam! was funny, whereas this trailer didn’t make me laugh once. The whole thing looks lame as hell. Susan Sarandon is the big villain? Jaime Reyes is yet another doofy, lightweight superhero who’s the butt of seemingly every joke? The silly family is his support team, with them piloting his Beetle Ship (or whatever it’s called) a sight gag? They can’t be expecting much from this film. I will say that the special effects look good, especially the suit. They’ve come a long way in capturing some of the comic book feel to these full-body coveralls, especially making the eyes expressive. At the same time, it’s highly derivative, like an Iron Man/Spider-Man hybrid. That helmet design looks like Tony Stark’s next armor mark. It screams desperation, which makes sense because it’s a superhero nobody knows of outside of hardcore comic book fans. I feel bad because I like Xolo Maridueña a lot on Cobra Kai, but this isn’t going to be his big movie break. As far as George Lopez calling Batman a fascist, I don’t know if this is the movie’s point – Jaime Reyes seems to admire Batman – but I think insulting most people’s favorite superhero to try to get them to watch yours is a tactical mistake.
Comments (2)
That’s the problem now. I used to give movies the benefit of the doubt, but there’s only so many times you can get burned after defending them.
To be fair, it could be simply for comedy. That final line. That said, seeing how woke Hollywood is now, I wouldn’t be suprised if that was actually serious.