First trailer dropped, there's a line by his father? at the end that I don't really like but it might just be his schtic (the dad I mean). Other than that the costume looks dope, besides the transformation and other things that are obvious CGI the costume isn't.

The trailer looks dope and fun and gives me a Kamen Rider vibe.

The final comment of, "Batman's a fascist!" makes this one a Hard Pass for me.

Quote from: jeff37923 on April 04, 2023, 01:38:47 PM
The final comment of, "Batman's a fascist!" makes this one a Hard Pass for me.

The director deleted (a shame the internet is forever) a tweet that shows him to suffer from extreme TDS.

Quote from: GeekyBugle on April 03, 2023, 11:55:56 PM
First trailer dropped, there's a line by his father? at the end that I don't really like but it might just be his schtic (the dad I mean). Other than that the costume looks dope, besides the transformation and other things that are obvious CGI the costume isn't.

The trailer looks dope and fun and gives me a Kamen Rider vibe.

The original Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle comics were among the few modern superhero takes I really enjoyed aside from Astro City.

It looks like they're not doing a direct adaptation, but it seems like they're keeping his close relationship with his family. I loved that Jaime is the sort of kid who actually talks to his parents, which is a refreshing change from the usual teenage superhero trope. (In the comics, he did hide his powers for a time, but he came clean fairly soon.)

Quote from: jhkim on April 04, 2023, 05:27:56 PM

Quote from: GeekyBugle on April 03, 2023, 11:55:56 PM
First trailer dropped, there's a line by his father? at the end that I don't really like but it might just be his schtic (the dad I mean). Other than that the costume looks dope, besides the transformation and other things that are obvious CGI the costume isn't.

The trailer looks dope and fun and gives me a Kamen Rider vibe.

The original Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle comics were among the few modern superhero takes I really enjoyed aside from Astro City.

It looks like they're not doing a direct adaptation, but it seems like they're keeping his close relationship with his family. I loved that Jaime is the sort of kid who actually talks to his parents, which is a refreshing change from the usual teenage superhero trope. (In the comics, he did hide his powers for a time, but he came clean fairly soon.)

Not having read the OG Blue Beetle ever, I never liked the character (Ted Kord) he was just a second rate Batman without the detective skills.

Jaime Reyes BB I liked, I still have all the comics, I have/had high hopes for the movie, Now I'll wait and see what a few reviewers I trust have to say about it when it drops.

Around the same time Blue Beetle III (Reyes) appeared, Marvel was completely fucking up Spider-Man with One More Day.

I remember sardonically commenting that the first ten or so issues of BB3 was 'the best Spider-Man comic'. And it WAS good. It kinda went stupid later on, but I have no objection to legacy heroes. I detest retcons and rewrites, but legacy heroes -- the idea of a mantle being passed down -- is actually a favorite trope of mine.

No guarantees on the movie, though. We all know how much Hollywood likes to fuck up.

Quote from: GeekyBugle on April 04, 2023, 06:42:40 PM
Not having read the OG Blue Beetle ever, I never liked the character (Ted Kord) he was just a second rate Batman without the detective skills.

IIRC, Ted Kord was more of a gadgeteer than a Batman clone. Think more "if Iron Man stuck to gadgets and wasn't an asshole."

I don't hate Jaime Reyes, but I do miss Ted Kord.

Note that Nite Owl in Watchmen is a stand-in for the Ted Kord Blue Beetle.

The Beetle thingy/the Owlthingy = The Batthingy

BBII is a second rate Batman like BBI is a second rate Green Hornet. It's why they never became really popular.

BBIII is Spiderman/Venom/Spawn sorta, kinda.

Looks interesting. Fans of the comic will note the deviations. But then at this point with a DC adaption is anyone surprised? These movies have been at times the name and maybe the likeness and not much else.

Quote from: GeekyBugle on April 05, 2023, 04:08:56 PM
The Beetle thingy/the Owlthingy = The Batthingy

BBII is a second rate Batman like BBI is a second rate Green Hornet. It's why they never became really popular.

BBIII is Spiderman/Venom/Spawn sorta, kinda.

So you dont know the characters and are just mouthing off?

BB 1f was more a Captain America sort of character. Bulletproof suit and strength formula.
BB 1c was a suit that gave strength, flight and some energy powers.
BB 2 was a gadget guy with no powers. Not very Batman and more in line with alot of Ditko's characters who were just kinda there.
BB 3 is more a Guyver wanna be and like Wally West as the Flash, is a more personable character.

So, I saw the movie:


Probably spoilers ahead.

The costume is perfect, Xolo Maridueña is good in the character, the crazy uncle isn't as obnoxious as I feared, Batman joke and all. The FX for the suit are great, Jaime is scared shitless when he first transforms which makes sense.

What I didn't like:

Too much time devoted to the family and talking
Too much convenience
Should have saved Carapax for a second or third movie and not make him a freaking man made cyborg
Susan Sarandon as the main villain could have worked, with a better script
The script is mostly shit IMHO, with a few scenes here and there
Did I mention the crazy uncle is also a tech genius that can infiltrate Kord Enterprise and break into Ted Kord's personal batcomputer beetlecumputer?
Grandma, don't get me started with Grandma

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.

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.

Those are all on point. I own the comics, the movie could have been good but they managed to fuck it up like always.

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.