Blue Beetle Kicks Capitalist Ass

Yeah, superhero films are a bit overblown. Sure, I like them as much as the next geek, but I think we can all agree that they've lost their luster. When Iron Man came out all those years ago, it really broke the idea of what was possible when it came to telling comic book tales on the big screen. Nothing had ever quite done what it did, and, honestly, not much has captured that raw sense of magic in the following years.

So I found myself considerably surprised when I watched Blue Beetle (2023) and found a diamond in the proverbial rough -- a diamond that absolutely nobody I know has been talking about.

The story follows a young man from an immigrant family (played by Xolo Mariduena of Cobra Kai fame) trying to save that family's home from the designs of a corporate buyout of his neighborhood. Through sheer happenstance, he finds himself wrapped up in a megacorporation scion's dark machinations, and becomes the accidental caretaker of a powerful force for good.

The film is unabashedly straightforward – you can predict the plot outcome from a mile away. And yet, the plot of "young superhero metes out justice" is just one facet of this little gem. For the real tale told is one of perseverance in the face of American imperialism and corporate greed. Every heroic character in this film has a background outside the white-anglo background so common with superhero flicks – and not one of those characters is left without a chance to shine.

Susan Sarandon, meanwhile, is absolutely fabulous as the corporate villain against whom our heroes are arrayed. As always, she's a delight on the screen, but she really manages to shine through here in an otherwise relatively simplistic role. Perhaps that's part of the film's charm: the true evil of our world is portrayed without any shades of gray... corporations bad. Imperialism? Bad. Police states? Bad. The line is drawn clearly, and it's drawn in favor of the people mainstream culture doesn't usually center in the limelight.

This definitely landed itself on my favorite superhero films shelf – I highly recommend you check it out asap.

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I’m Odin Halvorson, a librarian 📚, independent scholar 📖, film fanatic 🎬, fiction author 📝, and tech enthusiast 💻. If you like my work and want to support me, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to my newsletter for as little as $2.50 a month! 📣

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