The New 'Blue Beetle' Trailer Is Heavy On Family And Fast-Paced Action, But The Movie Faces An Uphill Battle To Factor Into The Future DCU
Even though Blue Beetle drops on my birthday, I don't think I'll be racing out to theaters to see it. Just being real. Whatever corner of the new DC Universe this movie is tucked into, I'm not sure that it's going to amount to much of anything besides one standalone, solo adventure.
Part of my skepticism stems from how much James Gunn hyped up The Flash. The more distance I have from that movie, the more ridiculous all the positive buzz about it seems. It was fine, the humor mostly worked, [problematic] Ezra Miller delivered a stellar dual performance...but not anywhere near one of the better comic-book movies of all-time like it was.
To be perfectly clear, I'm not rooting against Blue Beetle. It's wonderful to see the first-ever Latino-led superhero film. The titular star Xolo Maridueña seems more than capable of filling the cybernetic scarab suit.
Blue Beetle sort of feels like a cross between Iron Man and a family-oriented comedy, which isn't a bad thing at all. It looks like they're teeing up a Tony Stark vs. Obadiah Stane-esque super-suit battle in the final act. Better than a sky beam or a disposable CGI army...?
As for how well this project could do theatrically, budget isn't super unwieldy ($120 million) by superhero standards, so there's a scenario where Blue Beetle could emerge as a surprise hit. I really hope it crushes and gives a new generation an inspirational hero. It actually looks pretty damn good on its own merits — or at least the family dynamics and casting of the main hero seem to be on point.
No, the CGI doesn't look S Tier, but with COVID creating such a logjam of projects and suffocating deadlines, I can't help but cut some slack for that when taking into consideration what's gone on behind the scenes and how the pandemic impacted the industry. I know that's know a common point of view. Oh well. Can't help it.
Warner Bros Discovery has had a rough go of it at the box office with their DC heroes of late. Between Black Adam, the Shazam sequel and the long-awaited Flash flick, there have been three consecutive disappointments. Then of course there was the shelved, unreleased, unfinished Batgirl. Again, Gunn and co-DC Studios head Peter Safran are rebooting everything, so those stories are relatively inconsequential by default.
But now Gunn is saying Blue Beetle is (technically) the first new DC Universe movie. IDK about all that, if only because it was made under the previous regime. Yup. These are indeed confusing times for the casual movie/DC fan. At least Blue Beetle probably has a better chance of flourishing financially than the next Aquaman installment.
Whatever my reservations are about Blue Beetle or how "meh" I've felt toward DC for the vast majority of the past half-decade, at least we're getting a new Joaquin Phoenix Joker pic next year, have a sequel to The Batman on the way and will get Superman: Legacy from Gunn himself in about two years. Till all that goes down — with no disrespect to Blue Beetle or how good/culturally influential it might be in its own right — I'll struggle to get my hopes too high.