[nội dung được nhúng]
On a whim, I decided to watch the recent superhero movie, Blue Beetle. I'm getting a little tired of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so I thought I'd try something from DC. The film also stars Xolo Maridueña (whom I really liked in Cobra Kai) as the main hero, Jaime Reyes.
The basic structure of the movie is standard hero origin stuff, but at least it ends up being better than a lot of Marvel's recent stuff. I think where Blue Beetle succeeds (and where it increasingly fails) is that it feels very human and doesn't get lost in the weeds of the “superhero universe” or its tropes. In the case of Blue Beetle, the emphasis on Jaime's Latin American background is what ties the entire film together.
Jaime's family is Mexican, and they are shaped by both the hardships and triumphs they have faced to make a life in America, from some members being undocumented immigrants, to years of hard work, to a rather surprising detail about his doting old grandmother. Blue Beetle asks how someone like Jaime, the first member of his family to graduate from college, draws so much strength from his upbringing and cultural values. The generational and cultural gap that Jaime feels as a first-generation American feels very real. And through this, the story of the Reyes family delivers a complex message about what it's like to work towards the American dream in an America that doesn't see you as an equal.
The Blue Beetle isn't spectacular but it's still a pretty fun feature with some solid legs. It presents the superhero aspects of its story through its exploration of the multi-generational immigrant experience and attempts to cross a finish line that many of its peers cannot reach.