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MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

Jaime Reyes (Maridueña) has much to be happy about. He is returning home to his Latino family in tropical Palmera City with a BA from Gotham Law University. But he will have to put his personal dreams aside when he discovers that his father’s auto shop is no longer in business and their home will probably be repossessed by Kord Industries, the big city megacompany that overcharges the residents of the Edge Keys neighborhood with high rents while pushing them out by gentrification.

In desperate need of money, Jaime and his sister Milagro (Belissa Escobedo) find work in the service industry, cleaning the mansion of Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon), the ruthless head of Kord Industries. When not exploiting the poor, Kord Industries is busy in research and development of advanced war technology, including the One-Man Army Corps (OMAC), a device that transforms a person into an assault weapon. An essential component to this project is a blue scarab – discovered as an alien artifact in the arctic.

The Reyes kids quickly lose their jobs in rather humiliating and hilarious fashion, but not before Jaime draws the attention of Victoria’s niece Jenny (Marquezine), who promises to find him a better position with Kord Industries. It so happens that Jenny does not share her aunt’s dream of autocratic world control and is planning an act of subterfuge which will involve having Jaime sneak the blue scarab out of the Kord building in a fast-food burger box.

That’s just the setup for Jaime’s transformation into the Blue Beetle (which the trailer shows in great detail). The distinguishing (and fun) aspects of this film involve the entire Reyes family coming along to help out in the adventure, including Mom (Elpidia Carrillo), Dad (Damián Alcázar), Grandma (Adriana Barraza), and Jaime’s conspiracy theorist Uncle Rudy (George Lopez).

Blue Beetle has some important things to say about job inequality, racism and the weaponization of America and it was great to see Jaime and Jenny committed to nonviolence. However, if you’re going to be a DC Universe movie, you have to have a lot of fighting, so other characters are given the right to shoot, maim and kill. I let out an audible sigh when a family member was able to walk over to a computer, bang on the keyboard for about 30 seconds and discover major company secrets. There’s an amusing vehicle reminiscent of the Catbus in My Neighbor Totoro but it is too easily piloted by a first-time operator. (I was actually reminded of earlier Tex-Mex kid-friendly films (Spy Kids, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl) created by Robert Rodriguez. Those movies knew that they were silly and were proud of their low budget and unpretentious aspirations.)

Blue Beetle film is definitely a mixed bag. It’s more entertaining than many recent comic book movies, but it’s also nonessential and nonsensical. But if you are able to separate the wheat from the chaff (Matthew 3:12) there is enough grain for a hearty meal in this good-natured action comedy.

Halo and Pitchfork Rating:

Four halos: A superhero origin story that has its heart in the right place as well as two lead characters who display moral virtues.
Two pitchforks: Expected excessive comic book violence; some crude jokes and occasional swearing; some beer drinking.

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