★★☆☆☆
A young nobody who acquires amazing powers, loses a beloved family member and is dragged into a high-stakes conflict. A high-tech suit that allows its wearer to fly, survive attacks and fire laser bolts. An evil corporation that will stop at nothing in its bid for world domination. Stop me if you’ve heard any of this before. Blue Beetle is the latest product off the superhero production line and it’s as tediously familiar as rail strikes and rainy Augusts.
The only thing that differentiates this DC Comics adaptation from its scores of predecessors is the fact that its characters are mostly Latino-American. The protagonist is Jaime Reyes, who has recently graduated from university in Gotham and returned to his family home in the Miami-like Palmera City. Jaime is played by Xolo Maridueña, the Latino-American actor who is best know as Miguel in the Netflix series Cobra Kai, his co-stars are Latino, Mexican and Brazilian, and the film was directed by a Puerto Rican, Ángel Manuel Soto, and written by a Mexican, Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer.
All of which is great. But even here the film can’t escape cliché. Is there a rule that Latinos must be poor, emotionally volatile and family-orientated? Because the Reyes clan tick all those boxes. “The family — that’s for ever,” says Jaime’s father, Alberto (Damián Alcázar), in one of many telenovela-worthy exchanges. Even when they don’t conform to stereotypes you feel that their ethnicity is being used to distract from the fact that this is a wearily formulaic tale.
The boss of the aforementioned evil corporation is Victoria Kord, played by Susan Sarandon, who at least seems aware of what tosh this all is. “Finally the power of the scarab will be ours!” she cackles at one point, doing all she can not to wink at the camera. The scarab is a piece of alien technology that is stolen from the Kord building by Victoria’s stepdaughter, Jenny (Bruna Marquezine), before attaching itself rather creepily to Jaime’s nervous system and providing him with his gadget-stuffed supersuit, with insectoid wings and extra limbs.
The action sequences are mostly enervating and forgettable — you’ve heard that one before too — but there are saving graces. Soto has a stylish visual sense: Jaime’s suit and the rather meaner one worn by Carapax, Victoria’s psychotic henchman (Raoul Max Trujillo), have a sexy, neon-streaked aesthetic. There’s a great retro-synth soundtrack from the British musician Bobby Krlic, aka the Haxan Cloak, alongside well-chosen songs by Mötley Crüe and the like. Maridueña makes a likeable and sensitive leading man, even if you can’t quite believe in his romance with the high-powered Jenny. His rebellious uncle, Rudy, is played with a flourish by George Lopez (“You are a superhero, cabron!”), while his grandmother (Adriana Barraza) harbours a hilarious secret. None of this is really enough, though, when the concept and story are so devoid of spark.
12A, 127 min
In cinemas
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