"Blue Beetle" Feature Talkback (Spoilers)

[James Harvey]

He's a superhero whether he likes it or not.

Blue Beetle
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: August 18, 2023
Digital Release Date: September 26, 2023
Physical Media Release Date: 4K UHD, Blu-ray, DVD – October 31, 2023

Description: From Warner Bros. Pictures comes the feature film Blue Beetle, marking the DC Super Hero’s first time on the big screen. The film, directed by Angel Manuel Soto, stars Xolo Maridueña in the title role as well as his alter ego, Jaime Reyes.

Recent college grad Jaime Reyes returns home full of aspirations for his future, only to find that home is not quite as he left it. 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 biotechnology: the Scarab. When the Scarab suddenly chooses 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.

Starring alongside Maridueña are Adriana Barraza, Damían Alcázar, Elpidia Carrillo, Bruna Marquezine, Raoul Max Trujillo, with Oscar winner Susan Sarandon, and George Lopez. The film also stars Belissa Escobedo and Harvey Guillén. Soto directs from a screenplay by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, based on characters from DC.

A Warner Bros. Pictures Presentation, a Safran Company Production, Blue Beetle soars into theaters only internationally beginning August 2023 and in North America August 18, 2023. It will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Discuss Blue Beetle right here at Anime Superhero! So, what did you think?

Related Discussion:
-Blue Beetle The World's Finest Review (Spoilers)
-Blue Beetle News & Discussion Thread (Spoilers)
-Blue Beetle Ongoing Comic Series Talkback (Spoilers)
-Blue Beetle: Graduation Day Comic Mini-Series Talkback (Spoilers)

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Post added in late Aug. 2023 due to 2023 forum outage.

 

[Yojimbo]

8/18: Best Buy Steelbook cover and reportedly set for October 17.

8/24: Digital release rumored for September 19.

 

[Magmaster12]

I honestly hated the movie up until the Omac fight, it was incredibly cliche, I found his family annoying especially George Lopez's character and they changed too much from the comics that made it original.

Why did they give Jaime his city but Shazam has to be in a fictionalized larger version of Philadelphia? It's especially weird because it's a Floridian city which is pretty different from a border city like El Paso.

The only positive thing I can say about it is I liked the Ted Kord stuff I can only hope he gets played by a great comedic actor in some sort of follow-up. Plus if they follow the comics it'd be cool to see Xolo Maridueña team up with Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner.

My biggest gripe though

Spoiler: Spoiler

What the heck was the point of killing off his father, it added absolutely nothing to the movie because he did absolutely nothing the entire movie, George Lopez was more of a father figure then him and they barely did anything to even set up a relationship, it's such an awful example of killing off his character so he can get motivated.

Clearly an executive mandated this movies family themes and we just got that shoved down our throats with Shazam and we didn't need it, I think this would have been way more interesting if George Lopez and Ted's daughter were replaced by Paco and Brenda.

 

[Yojimbo]

Why did they give Jaime his city but Shazam has to be in a fictionalized larger version of Philadelphia? It's especially weird because it's a Floridian city which is pretty different from a border city like El Paso.

8/29: Is this new city gonna debut in the comics - so maybe it was a corporate synergy thing?

9/1: VOD date reported to be September 19.

9/7: YouTube Movies pre-order lists a release date of September 26.

 

[M.O.D.O.K.]

On the surface, this is a pretty by-the-numbers superhero origin film that hits familiar beats. However, predictability isn't inherently a bad thing if the execution is well-handled, which I think fits this movie. Jaime is pretty likable and so is his family. While I still think we've yet to had a faithful adaptation of Jaime's Blue Beetle, this movie is the closest to it by focusing on Jaime's relationship with his family. Even the George Lopez character didn't annoy me as much as I feared.

I was a bit annoyed that they killed off Alberto, but I thought the execution was well-done. He could've used a scene or two more, but it hit the emotional spots well. "Now, we cry" indeed. I guess it would've been less palatable if this took place with a younger Jaime and co. but this was fine.

This movie was originally meant for a streaming release and had a smaller budget, but I felt like it made some smart decisions. I appreciated that we got a practical suit enhanced by some CGI. As a result, the movie felt grounded. It's certainly a fitting contrast to The Flash, which had some of the worst live-action CGI I've ever seen.

As for some weaknesses: the villains felt underwritten and were stronger as concepts than as characters. Victoria Kord feels like an update to Jarvis Kord as someone who faced discrimination from her father, but chose to repeat his mistakes and wallow in self-pity rather than move forward. Carapax was just a goon until his backstory comes in too late. The choice to tie him to the School of the Americas is an inspired one if you know the real-life story behind it, but it could've been fleshed out more. I also didn't find Milagro endearing, especially compared to her comic book version.

One last thing: I loved the Chapulin Colorado, and I'm honestly surprised I didn't make the connection between him and Blue Beetle (or Green Hornet, for that matter) sooner.

 

[Yojimbo]

9/20: Home entertainment dates confirmed.

September 26, confirmed to be available for early Premium Digital Ownership at home for $24.99 and for 48-hour rental via PVOD for $19.99 on participating digital platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Vudu, and more.

October 31, physical media release on on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD

9/28: First 10 minutes posted.



10/23: Soto confirmed there was an ending where Ted appears.

 

[Fone Bone]

Blue Beetle

That was a very good movie. I would guess probably the best live-action DC movie since the first Wonder Woman.

So why did it bomb?

I honestly don't think it would matter HOW good the movie is. I think even if it were amazing it would have underperformed. Nobody trusts DC movies. They ran out of their eleventh chances on garbage movie after garbage movie. Going to the movies is expensive now. Repeatedly watching crappy DC movies on the off-chance you'll get a decent one like this is what is known as a bad investment.

This is why I don't believe James Gunn can save the DC Universe. If Warner Discovery truly wants to save the DC movie franchise, stop making movies for five to ten years, no exaggeration. Hell, I would cease production on new TV shows too and only produce one or two kiddie cartoons at a time. Make people miss the franchise a little. And they after everybody has forgotten why we all loathe DC Comics movies, quietly start bringing them back, and making them not just good, but effortlessly good, and ENJOYABLE (like this one is), and the way Marvel movies used to be before they bit off more than they could chew and went off the rails. But Marvel actually made quite a run of it. DC never left the station before blowing everything to hell.

The movie wasn't perfect (I felt Jaime was held captive for far too long in the climax) but it did a LOT of stuff I thought was great (like surprisingly redeeming OMAC, and letting both Jaime and the audience sympathize and understand him). I thought his Nana being a secret badass felt kind of random and stupid, but the rest of the family dynamics were a bit refreshing. I feel like this is a really good superhero movie that deserved to exist in a better franchise. Instead it hit the Extended Universe while it was on its last legs. It's being a financial failure was actually inevitable. ****.

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

I saw it on opening day and that was a great film unfortunately overshadowed by the Barbenheimer event and the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

 

[RoyalRubble]

The movie will be added to Max on November 17.

 

[Yojimbo]

Good movie. Liked the commentary on Latino Americans. Loved seeing all the classic Blue Beetle constructs. Some neat easter eggs and references throughout (one that flew over my head was the article by Belinda Izquierdo about Victoria. In the comics, Belinda is a Daily Planet reporter). Glad both Ted and Dan got mentioned. Wonder if Ted's wife was Tracey from the Charlton Comics. About a 3 stars at most from me.

Yeah, like others I wasn't feeling the big focus on the Reyes family and them having to go or them going off to risk their lives to bail out Jaime and fight a private army...

The movie was oddly missing a lot screen time between Jaime and Khaji-Da getting to know each other. It was sprinkled here and there when an action scene came up, but it seemed like a lot got cut for pacing.

Carapax redeeming himself at the end was the real surprise for me but another typical CBM villain dying at the end of their first movie appearance which also cleans up the other lingering problems. Eh.

Guess the sequel was/is deals with the search for Ted and probably the Reach.

 

[Checkerboard]

The movie will be added to Max on November 17.

And I can add to that that in Central Europe it has aired on HBO and was added to HBO Max today.

 

[the greenman]

Honestly wasn't a bad film. Wasn't groundbreaking either. Loved the family interaction the villain wasn't 100% enough for me though. This almost felt like Steel in the 90's. At least they didn't go with doppleganger villain like Marvel does.

Sent from my moto g power (2022) using Tapatalk

 

[Checkerboard]

To me the film was Venom meets Suicide Squad with a lower budget. An okay movie to watch once in the evening on tv, but not cinema quality material. Of course, I had no clue what the film was about, I not that of a comic nerd to know BB, so I couldn't judge that part. But everything else seemed like it was a decent budget VOD film or ie. low budget theater production if you will.

 

[Otaku-sempai]

To me the film was Venom meets Suicide Squad with a lower budget. An okay movie to watch once in the evening on tv, but not cinema quality material. Of course, I had no clue what the film was about, I not that of a comic nerd to know BB, so I couldn't judge that part. But everything else seemed like it was a decent budget VOD film or ie. low budget theater production if you will.

I'm a child of the Silver Age and early Bronze Age, so my Blue Beetle is Ted Kord. I even remember some of the original Charlton issues. But I'll get around to watching the movie sometime in the near future!

 

[Checkerboard]

Like I said, I'm not familiar with Blue Beetle at all, so in a way this is how I felt being a casual viewer. However, I did like for a change the Latino aspect of the film, the beetle costume was somewhat cool and the family chemistry was nice. Also good pace. Those things worked I think. But the premise and presentation were kinda predictable, repetetive and low budget. Nothing wrong, just after so many films also not very innovative.

 

[Yojimbo]

Still, it's great to see it chart as #1 on Max right now.

 

[-batmat-]

I was pleasently surprised with this. Given its bad rep and box office failure, I was expecting something really bad or barely passable, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. From the trailers, I didn't like the idea of having the family front and center, but I ended up enjoying them quite a lot, and most importantly, I think the movie hit the emotional moments quite well for me. I wouldn't mind Xolo as BB returning in the future DC movies.

 

[RoyalRubble]

Xolo Mariduena won a Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Performer.

 

[Frontier]

Xolo Mariduena won a Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Performer.

Congrats on the win .

 

[Yojimbo]

Will be shown at AMC Theatres September 20 to 26.