Blue Beetle

Director Angel Manuel Soto and writer Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer do their best to weave a few additional progressive elements into this basically routine production, evidently aimed at younger viewers.

It's a great story about family... There were a couple of moments I completely forgot I was watching a superhero film. I just wanted to spend time with these people.

For me it's a bifurcated experience with this movie. I appreciated it from a "la familia" level, but on any kind of comic book, action-adventure level, I thought it was kind of subpar.

There's actually this battle not just between good and evil in the movie but also a little bit of class warfare that's going on, and that feels different than [other] superhero underdog stories.

This movie is really fun... The thing that makes this different from a lot of the big shiny noisy spectacles is that family element.

A very charming superhero movie.

Blue Beetle is an amiable, sincere, and fitfully enjoyable piece in the superhero genre that entertains and engages in both thrills and poignancy thanks to its grounded approach and Soto’s focus on family over special effects. Recommended.

Blue Beetle’s director, Angel Manuel Soto, and screenwriter, Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, could have concocted a family comedy with these engaging characters, eliminating the trite superhero theatrics, and they probably would have had a stronger film.


Blue Beetle is charming, disposable pop entertainment. Not every film needs to be a apocalyptic spectacle.

While the special effects are a little clunky here, the non-action scenes featuring Jaime’s funky family circle are invariably warm, inviting, and fun.