BLUE BEETLE (How to Ruin a Superhero Debut) EXPLORED

2023 appears to be a challenging year for DC films striving to stake their claim in the movie industry, with "Blue Beetle" reaching a new box-office low.
Pulling in a meagre 25 million at the domestic box office over its first five days, the film has had the weakest DC movie debut ever (setting aside "Wonder Woman 1984", which still managed to make $16.7 million, amidst restrictions to cinema capacity, limited release on fewer theatres and its simultaneous release on HBO during the pandemic).
Further dampening expectations, Blue Beetle’s entire domestic box office earnings are estimated to hit a mere $55 million. Given its hefty $120 million production cost and additional $100-120 million put into marketing, and release after release of box office failures for Warner Bros, this outcome will be a major setback for a company haemorrhaging money with each film they put out.
It doesn't help that the film's cast is absent from promotional events due to the ongoing strikes, asking to be paid more for films they don’t want to promote to the public. This only exacerbates the company’s uphill battle to generate buzz around the film, and ironically any chance the people picketing had of having their demands met.
There was even a point where "Blue Beetle" might not have even graced the silver screen, having been initially earmarked for an exclusive HBO Max release alongside "Batgirl", which ended up getting scrapped altogether after it was completed.
James Gunn has been vocal about Jaime Reyes' continued presence in the DCU, hoping to drum up enthusiasm for "Blue Beetle" by initially saying the film was part of his universe, before walking back and confirming that while the film wasn’t, Xolo would be returning as Blue Beetle. Given the man literally said the Flash was the best Superhero film he had ever seen, right after been given the reigns to the company, I’m not sure what to believe.
With all that said, how does it fare compared to the box office failures preceding it?
In "Blue Beetle", we delve into the life of Jaime Reyes (portrayed by Xolo Mariduena), a fresh college graduate striving to secure his family's home.
His life takes an unexpected turn when he crosses paths with the formidable Victoria Kord (played by Susan Sarandon), the head of the tech behemoth, Kord Industries.
This clash not only costs Jaime and his sister their cleaning jobs, but drags him into a whirlwind of drama involving Victoria's disapproving niece, Jenny (Bruna Marquezine). Through a sequence of mishaps, Jaime finds himself inadvertently bonding with an ancient alien artifact, transforming him into the superhero, Blue Beetle.
This doesn't go unnoticed, as Victoria is adamant about reclaiming the Scarab, deploying her armored super soldier in pursuit. The film grapples with a number of significant setbacks. Firstly, its origins as an HBO Max exclusive release are glaringly evident in its final cut. The writers also borrow, not just plot points and one-liners, but themes, character objectives, motivations, and even set pieces directly from better films.
The movie is littered with cliches, tropes, and plot contrivances, we have the addition of unnecessary subplots that lead nowhere, some that abruptly stop, while others spring out of nowhere through exposition. In addition to the lack of world building.
We’ve got the injection of weird tonal shifts, our heroes and villains do stupid things to facilitate plot, there’s coincidences and contrivances, poor character work, and an underwhelming villain. In essence, "Blue Beetle" feels like a TV series rather than a cinematic introduction to a DC superhero. And it manages to plunder from its predecessors so heavily, that it often feels like an unimaginative mashup playlist of ideas with no synergy.
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