Way back in college, my friend lent me a VHS tape of the anime version of Bio Booster Armor Guyver. It was all about a teenager who accidentally bonded with an alien piece of technology. This tech allowed the teen to get wrapped in a form of bio-armor and, with it, he had the power to fight off against an evil corporation who would do anything to get back this tech for its own nefarious purposes. I loved the anime and I even loved the cheesy Western live-action version of the anime, warts and all.

I only mention this because I just watched the live-action version of Blue Beetle on HBO Go. And I can’t help but wish it was as awesome as the Guyver anime. But even so, was it like the live-action version of the anime, in that I still liked it?

Before I go on with the review proper, I do have to mention that this will be a SPOILER FILLED review. Blue Beetle was released half a year ago in theaters and was made available for streaming on HBO MAX and HBO Go soon after. It was one of the most watched movies on the aforementioned streaming services. So, I’m just giving my SPOILER FILLED thoughts on this movie that most people have already seen.

Anyway, Blue Beetle is based on the DC superhero of the same name. Well, the third generation version of the character anyway. Like I said, the plot eerily resembles the plot of the Guyver anime. Here, the teenager is newly college graduate Jaime Reyes. The alien tech here is called the Scarab, which bonds to a host it chooses to be worthy. This does lead the head of Kord Industries, Victoria Kord, to hunt Jaime Reyes down as she needs the Scarab as she needs the alien source code to activate her own project, the OMAC Project.

I will say the best part of Blue Beetle is actually the acting and most of the characters involved. Xolo Mariduena, of Cobra Kai fame, plays Jaime Reyes and he does a fine job here, especially when he has to pull off the more dramatic moments. He does come off as rather unrealistic when he has to come off as being panicked as he’s just a little too over the top for my liking. Still, Xolo Mariduena pulls off the “nice guy” role pretty good so you do root for him. Actually, the same thing can be said for the rest of Jaime Reyes’ family. They do remarkably well with the dramatic scenes as they behave like real people during these moments. But when they do the more silly and comedic scenes, they act too cartoony to be taken seriously. Then again, you get to see George Lopez’s acting chops here. Quite the feat if you just think of him as the silly guy who does silly faces.

Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the other cast members. Susan Sarandon feels horribly miscast as Victoria Kord, the main villain of the film. Carapax, played by Raoul Trujillo, feels so generic and, while he has a tragic backstory, it doesn’t really come into play until the very end. Bruna Marquezine, who plays Jenny Kord and Jaime Reyes’ love interest, is just okay but she just doesn’t have the acting chops for the more dramatic moments.

I also do love that DC didn’t go the Marvel route by trying to be too quippy and too funny. Sure, Blue Beetle tries to be funny and lively most of the time. But I love how it actually lets the drama simmer without trying to interrupt with a joke. They try to let these more serious moments marinate so you can actually feel the sadness.

Unfortunately, the overall script and the story of Blue Beetle is, well, pretty bad. At the very least, it feels like it was edited to heck in order to trim the film to its current 127 minute runtime. Like I said, this is a SPOILER FILLED review so I’m going to start going through some specific moments. A good example is, well, the Blue Beetle superhero. In one scene, Jenny Kord takes Jaime Reyes and George Lopez’s character to her father’s “lair” and she reveals that her father was the original Blue Beetle. The problem is no one has talked about there being a Blue Beetle superhero before in the film! Oh, they show a newspaper article or two showing the Ted Kord version of the Blue Beetle character. But it’s only seen briefly in the opening credits. It’s a “blink and you’ll miss it kind of a deal.” A few hints, like George Lopez’s character waxing nostalgic over the original superhero earlier in the film needed to be there. You know, Chekov’s Gun that backstory!

That’s not the only time the film doesn’t provide enough backstory to make it feel a little more put together. You have Jaime Reyes’ Nana being able to handle a big gun because, apparently, she was part of a rebel force during her youth. Well, that’s only explained when they have to break into a fortress in order to rescue Jaime. Once again, a little foreshadowing with maybe Nana yelling things at random or getting really heated while watching something on TV. There are other instances and these may seem like minor issue. But there quite a number of them and they do pile up.

There are also some really dumb inconsistencies with Jaime Reyes and his entire family’s… morality, I guess. During Blue Beetle’s first fight with Carapax, Jaime gets the upper hand but, when the Blue Beetle armor tries to kill Carapax, Jaime orders it to stop as he’s not a killer. Okay, cool. We finally have a DC hero who won’t kill as much as possible, right? We won’t have a Batman v. Superman situation where Batman causes a bad guy’s vehicle to explode by shooting it with the gun mounted on his Batmobile and we’re expected to believe the people in the car didn’t get blown to smithereens. Blue Beetle is a man with a code of honor. He’s a superhero who will not kill.

Except he does. Oh, he does restrain himself when he tries to save his family from Victoria Kord’s soldiers. But when he breaks out of his cell, he definitely kills a couple of soldiers then. Oh, you can try to defend it because no one was stabbed (even though there were a couple who were pierced through with Blue Beetle’s pincers) and they could be okay (even though there was this one guy who got smashed through the roof and is now dangling from the neck down). They’re fiiiiine! This is even more disturbing when you realize Jaime Reyes probably has the biggest smile underneath the mask because it does sound like he’s having a blast maiming and mauling these guys.

What’s even crazier is how the rest of the family gleefully kill off a platoon of soldiers when they invade the fortress in Ted Kord’s Bug ship. One guy got trampled on and a couple of them got crushed in the crash. Yeah, even if the guys Blue Beetle beat up survived, the rest of the Reyes family have got blood on their hands!

Speaking of the fights, they’re really a weird mixed bag. When they use more practical effects and stuntwork, they’re pretty good. When it’s just all CGI, they’re pretty bad. Mostly because a lot of the CGI isn’t all that good. Sure, the effects on Blue Beetle’s eyes and the initial transformation scene looked fine. But the rest just looked uncanny valley. A small part of me wished DC just did what Guyver did and used people in rubber suits doing martial arts fights. Not exactly what you would expect for today’s big budget superhero flick but, since the practical stuntwork look cool, it might have worked.

Overall, Blue Beetle is just okay. I have to hand it to most of the cast, especially Xolo Mariduena, for pulling off some really good performances. And the fight scenes of the practical variety are entertaining enough. However, the numerous plotholes and all the contrivances with the plot really took me out of the experience. I just couldn’t get into it. I guess you can watch it but only if you just want something to let your brain relax because you don’t want to think too hard when watching it.

Not unlike Guyver. That anime is cool!

Have you seen Blue Beetle? What did you think of it? Better yet, have you seen the Guyver anime? What did you think of that? Let me know in the comments section below!