Blue Beetle (2023) - My thoughts real quick

* Some spoilers ahead *

The 2023 superhero flick, "Blue Beetle", based on the DC character, came and went quickly with favorable reviews while bombing at the box office back in August. I think the best days of current superhero movies for DC and Marvel have passed. Too much of a good thing isn't very good. And DC came a bit late to the game. 

My interest and enthusiasm for comic book movies, particularly those from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, faded considerably after "Avengers: Endgame" (2019). 

DC comic character Blue Beetle was created by Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski, and first appeared in Mystery Men Comics no. 1 in 1939. 

The original Blue Beetle's real name in the comic books was Dan Garret. 

Garret's former student, Ted Kord, later replaced him as Blue Beetle. 

Later, Jaime Reyes, a teenager from El Paso, became the third Blue Beetle. And that's where this movie picks up. 

Xolo Maridueña (Miguel from "Cobra Kai") plays Jaime as he returns to Panama City just after graduating from Gotham Law University. 

His nana (Adriana Barraza) as well as his Uncle Rudy (George Lopez), who's preoccupied with conspiracy theories, also live at home. 

Though his family is glad to see Jaime, they welcome him home with a load of bad news. For one thing, his family is facing eviction from their home as they can't meet their financial requirements. The family auto repair business is failing. And Jaime's father, Alberto (Damián Alcázar), suffered a heart attack which Jaime wasn't told about. 

Later, Jaime and his younger sister Milagro (Belissa Escobedo) are fired from their cleaning job at Victoria Kord's (Susan Sarandon) mansion after Jaime interferes with an argument between Victoria and her niece, Jenny (Bruna Marquezine) - Ted's daughter. 

Victoria is the current CEO of Kord Industries and Ted Kord's sister. Her main ambition is to get her hands on a blue scarab artifact, that is actually a sentient weapon, for her one-man army project. 

But Jenny recognizes her greed and unethical intentions and questions her leadership ability within her father's company. She's determined to stop Victoria. 

Feeling bad for what went down, Jenny tells Jaime to meet her at Kord Tower the next day to discuss another employment option. 

So, Jaime goes to meet her. 

As he arrives and is waiting to speak with her, Jenny meanwhile steals the scarab from the laboratory in Kord Tower. When Jaime approaches her about a job, Jenny gives him the scarab hidden inside a Big Belly Burger to-go box in order to get it past security. She tells him to take it home and to not open the box under any circumstances. 

Jaime takes it, and of course his family convinces him to open the box and see what's inside. 

When he does, Jaime touches the scarab which activates it. The scarab fuses with his body and encases him in blue body armor. 

Now, he's the Blue Beetle though he has no idea what's happening. Jaime can fly around and has superhuman strength. 

The pacing of the movie is awkward. It's quick when it shouldn't be. There's a lot of tragedy and emotion in this movie, and it's pushed out of the way rather quickly. It doesn't strike me as sincere. 

The father dies of a heart attack in the second act, and the Reyes house burns down. The characters are given a couple seconds to grieve until its back to work. 

Susan Sarandon nails her character in that the audience wants to hate her and see her get what's coming to her. 

The only interesting characters are Jaime and Rudy. 

It's strange that I say that about Rudy because I'm not a fan of George Lopez. But I'll give credit where credit is due. His performance is hilarious in this role, and he puts in a lot of energy and effort. Lopez looks comfortable in this role. 

The writing is pretty cliché. For instance, in one scene, Rudy tells Jaime "The universe has sent you a gift, and you have to figure out what to do with it." Yeah, we've heard it before. 

In a scene towards the third act, Jaime has a vision of his deceased father who tells him to embrace his new Blue Beetle identity. It's a bit like Peter Parker's with his Uncle Ben in "Spider-Man." "With great power comes great responsibility," blah, blah, blah. Same stuff. Different movie.

At the end, it's another superhero movie that barely offers anything different or new. 

And Jaime doesn't learn much except that bad things happen, society stinks, and family is crucial for our support, which he already believed in the first place. 

To Jaime's credit, he doesn't let those awful things hold him down. Neither he nor his family don't succumb to a victimhood mentality. They continue to fight against all that's working against them. 

While I appreciate the strong family bond, the rest is empty platitudes heard again and again, sprinkled on top of a storyline seen many times before.