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Blue Beetle Movie

Started by GeekyBugle, April 03, 2023, 11:55:56 PM

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GeekyBugle

#15
November 15, 2023, 11:32:18 AM
Quote from: jhkim on November 14, 2023, 09:03:51 PM
Quote from: Valatar on November 14, 2023, 01:36:02 AM
I have not seen the movie, but what I have seen and read has given me several complaints that have stopped me watching the movie:

1. The beetle Khaji-da in the comics is a genocidal alien weapon, its go-to answer to almost any situation is to kill everything in sight, Jaime is rightly afraid of it and the two struggle at odds for quite some while.  The movie beetle seems like a laid-back buddy in comparison and is pretty immediately working smoothly with Jaime, killing a lot of the interesting interaction that the comic had.

2. The initial antagonist in the comic was La Dama, a Mexican (or ancient entity pretending to be Mexican, depending on the author) crime lord and mistress of the supernatural arts.  The movie swapped her out for some middle-aged Karen related to Kord, for no good reason that I could tell except for avoiding a latina villain.

3. Comic Jaime took a while on a very bumpy road to work things out with his friends and family; they were understandably not all that cool with a weird alien Guyver thing attached to his spine, especially one that went around impaling people through the heart.  The movie seemed to just hand that to him on a platter, comparatively speaking.

I saw it and generally didn't like it. My biggest issue is that they moved away from Jaime just being a good-natured kid. To me, that was the heart of the comic -- the part that made it the favorite of my son's comics as he was growing up. My favorite scenes from the comic were (a) his turning into a dentist as his magical wish; and (b) giving his abuela a flight.

So I agree with #1. The movie goes through an arc where the suit is genocidal at the start - but learns very quickly from Jaime and even comes full circle to turning him away from violence at the end of the movie. That's going too far, and reduces Jaime from a good-natured kid into another Batman or Spider-Man. Jaime was good because he was different from those.


Still, I disagree with #3. In the comic, it took many issues for him to come out to his family -- but they never turned against him or he against them. The positive family dynamic I thought was one of the great things of the comic. I hated that the movie killed off his father, and set Jaime on revenge - which turns Jaime into another Batman, when he was so much better as a family-oriented superhero.

I also disagree about #2. I don't like the origin story plotline in general, but given that they were doing an origin story -- having the villain be based in Kord Industries is to be expected rather than unrelated villain La Dama. In a standalone movie for non-comic fans who don't know Blue Beetle, you need to limit the weird premises. That's why the Iron Man villain was Iron Monger, and the villain in Ant Man was Yellowjacket -- both based on their corporations. You're pitching it as a woke thing, but from what I see, Disney has had damn few white males as villains in the recent movies. Almost all their recent villains are non-white and/or women.

As an aside, I also don't like how they moved the setting into a fictional pseudo-Miami instead of El Paso. It seemed pointless and weakened the connection of the family to the area.

You're aware that Blue Bettle is DC not Marvel right?
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jhkim

#16
November 15, 2023, 03:25:39 PM
Quote from: GeekyBugle on November 15, 2023, 11:32:18 AM
You're aware that Blue Bettle is DC not Marvel right?

Whoops. Sorry - my bad. I knew that in principle, but I got mixed up when I was writing.

DC movies have mostly had white men as villains - though Black Adam had a North African actor as Sabbac.

I'd still say I don't think La Dama is the clear choice for a Blue Beetle movie villain. I was thinking that they'd involve The Reach, but as I said, given that this was an origin story, I think someone in Kord Industries does seem like an obvious choice.

Valatar

#17
November 17, 2023, 02:47:31 PM
Did they at least cover the fact that Khaji-da is a Reach weapon?  Like, were they mentioned at all, or was the beetle just referred to as generically alien?  I could handwave them starting with a lower-tier threat than the Reach itself for the origin movie; Jaime had some time to get on his feet and work out a relationship with Khaji-da before the Reach came knocking.

jhkim

#18
November 20, 2023, 02:06:20 PM
Quote from: Valatar on November 17, 2023, 02:47:31 PM
Did they at least cover the fact that Khaji-da is a Reach weapon?  Like, were they mentioned at all, or was the beetle just referred to as generically alien?  I could handwave them starting with a lower-tier threat than the Reach itself for the origin movie; Jaime had some time to get on his feet and work out a relationship with Khaji-da before the Reach came knocking.

There was no mention of "The Reach" as a term. I think they could easily still have it be from the Reach in a sequel - though I doubt there will be one given that it was a flop at the box office.
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