Blue Beetle Review: Where Are The White Dudes?

For every one that pushes the diversity angle, I have to ask what happened to the white dudes in DC’s new Blue Beetle movie?

The movie actually doesn’t have one star or co-star that is a white male and the villain also happens to be a white female.

White dude Grandpa Kord is sexist. White dude Ted Kord is missing. White dude Dan Garrett is dead. White dude Ronald Reagan has a voice cameo and is a bad guy, and it’s all his fault. Oh yeah, and white dude Batman is a fascist.

Mexicans are broke. Mexicans can’t move up the ladder. Mexicans are servants. White people don’t know Mexicans’ names. Again, all the fault of white people. I was surprised the entire film wasn’t in Spanish and didn’t us English subtitles.

I did enjoy the movie but Blue Beetle obviously goes out of its way to exclude white people, particularly white males, so again, for everyone that pushes the diversity garbage, what’s it say when a movie intentionally doesn’t use white males? Even Captain Marvel has a white male as a co-star. Isn’t everybody supposed to be represented? As a white person myself, I shouldn’t see the movie because I am not “represented,” right? Isn’t that what they argue?

The box office is also underperforming, so I guess it’s us white dudes to blame for not going to see the movie.

Xolo Maridueña is great at Blue Beetle

Anyway, rant over…

Xolo Maridueña saves this entire movie and is really great as Jamie Reyes the Blue Beetle. I loved the kid in Netfix’s Cobra Kai, and he plays a similar character here. He’s a great actor.

George Lopez is also really good and funny as Uncle Rudy, and the family elements of the movie are really well done at times, and the family stuff is heartfelt and even a tear-jerker.

Blue Beetle “Shazamily” is cringe

However, what I didn’t like is how Blue Beetle goes the same way as Shazam! where at the end of the movie, the “Shazamily” formed and were given powers and helped Shazam take down the bad guy. It’s exactly the same in Blue Beetle.

Spoiler: The grandma with the Vulcan/Gatling mini gun is simply awful. It’s revealed in her past she used to be some rebel fighting the (white dude) imperialists. She knows tunnels. She knows guns. She knows how to kill people. CRINGE AF.

Uncle Rudy also knows all about tech, which is okay as it lent itself to the story, but I found it hilarious the dude drives a tricked-out Toyota Tacoma and has all these gadgets probably worth around 50k but the family is broke AF.

Jamie and his sister also seem to be the only family members that have jobs. Or did.

It reminded me of the original Willa Wonka movie where no one works, and Grandpa Joe lays in bed all day, but once the kids gets the Golden Ticket, and an invite to the Chocolate Factory, “miraculously,” Grandpa Joe can walk. Well, now Nana can kick all kinds of ass.

I would much rather have had Jamie fighting the battles instead of his family doing the fighting for him. They could still have had all the family elements, but the sister and Gradmna fighting was absolutely ridiculous.

Imagine if in Spider-Man, Aunt May and MJ all got powers and helped Peter. Yeah, that’s dumb AF. Or if Ma Kent and Lois all got powers and fought Superman’s battles? LOL.

Special effects and suit look good

Special effects were decent enough and the suit looks really good.

The flick cost something like a third of The Flash and has much better special effects. Fight scenes are all done well, too.

Bad guy is typical

The bad guy is your typical villain and I didn’t know it was OMAC and they tie things together nicely at the end of the film, so I didn’t mind Carapax.

It was also pretty brutal what he ended up doing with Victoria Kord, which took me for a surprise.

Score is good but not Motley Crue

Score is really good too, and I especially liked the Blue Beetle theme music.

However, what didn’t fit at all was using Motley Crue’s Kickstart My Heart in that scene with The Bug, as the scene and The Bug are way too slow for the song.

They could have used Kickstart My Heart when Blue Beetle was fighting all those bad guys in the tunnels, but of course, I think they used Mexican music.

Some other thoughts:

How about the Scarab never talks to Jamie in Spanish until the mother talks to the scarab in Spanish? What’s that about?

The flick didn’t go into any history of the Scarab other than it’s alien, as in the comics, there is a lot more, but I suppose that could be saved for a sequel, if that ever happens.

What about the post-credit scenes?

The Ted Kord scene was alright. My first thought is it reminded me of Zod from that Man of Steel “You Are Not Alone” scene.

The second post-credit scene, honestly, I have no idea what it is, and my son even said to me, “Dad, you wanted to wait for that?”

Blue Beetle is your typical superhero movie, so if you are a fan of CBM’s it’s worth a watch, and I’ll say I wouldn’t mind a sequel as, again, Xolo is great as Blue Beetle, George Lopez is really entertaining as Rudy, the suit looks super cool but please keep all the politics out.