Movie Review - Blue Beetle

It gives me no pleasure to give this move such a poor grade. There aren't enough movies that cater to the Latino community, and it's kind of important that when there is one, they get it right. Represent! You know what I'm saying?

Team Failure

Some movies have bad acting, but rarely is the acting so bad it's a noticeable distraction. But Blue Beetle had multiple bad actors. Surprisingly, Susan Sarandon was the worst of them. From the opening scene, you could tell that she wanted to be anywhere but on that set. If her acting were any worse the studio might be able to sue for sabotage.

7:42●●● 95%

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Susan wasn't alone. Jenny, played by Brazilian actress Bruna Marquezine, was noticeably bad as well. Great actors don't just show up and make every scene they're in perfect. It takes a team. First there must be great dialog for the actor to work with and the director needs to play their part in, you know, directing. When everyone is on the top of their game we get greatness. But if just one of those pieces fails then the whole thing is going to fail. Great actors can't make bad dialog work. Bruna Marquezine's bad acting isn't just on her. The dialog she had to work with was pretty stale to start with.

On the flip side, the father--Alberto--performed by Damián Alcázar, was excellent. He had many emotional scenes and each one stood out in a sea of mediocrity.

Frankenstein

The story of Blue Beetle is essentially an amalgamation of Green Lantern and Venom, without the humor. They tried to create a story around Jaime teaching Khaji-Da (the beetle) that killing is bad. This is a trope that has been beat to death ever since Terminator 2. T2 did a great job with it. They took time to build a relationship between young John Conner and the Terminator and made a really dramatic story about the Terminator learning the value of life and existence. Blue Beetle took too many shortcuts in the story to make that point in dramatic fashion.

Essentially, Blue Beetle takes tropes, and sometimes entire lines of dialog and tries to piece them together into something fresh and entertaining. But in taking from tropes they condensed too much and were left with the shell of a story.

The bright side to this movie is that they stole so much from Green Lantern that it makes Green Lantern look good in comparison.

Grade: D-

Plot An alien relic chooses Jaime Reyes to be its symbiotic host, bestowing the teenager with a suit of armor that's capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the superhero Blue Beetle.