A DC Animated Movies available now on 4K
DC’s Jaime Reyes leaps onto the small screen as the underrated summer blockbuster film comes home to 4K Ultra HD, Digital, and Blu-ray with action aplenty and bonus features, too.
James Gunn hasn’t hasn’t made up his mind yet. The head of DC Studios has suggested that the verdict is still out on what previously released films and their stars will be considered or entered into cannon when he and Peter Safran relaunch the DC Cinematic Universe. The filmmaker best known for the Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy franchise and his reboot of The Suicide Squad may have dropped the axe on Zachery Levy and the Shazam! films, but Gunn has suggested that Ezra Miller might suit up again as The Flash (even though Gunn famously engineered the alternate ending to the film which featured George Clooney, the-actor-least-likely to don Batman’s cape and cowl on the big screen), and the upcoming Aquaman sequel has reportedly suffered from so many reshoots, it’s anyone’s guess what will surface in theaters in December.
So the question is, why endeavor the investment in one of the most obscure modern-day DC superheroes Blue Beetle which was brought to the big screen this summer and is now available on 4K Ultra HD home video? For the uninitiated, the Blue Beetle is a sort of fusion of Spider-Man & Iron Man meets Green Lantern. The character has been around for many years, first as a lead in the line of Charlton Comics that were integrated into DC Comics multiverse during the 80s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” event. The film dives deep into its heroic legacy. Still, it is focused on the most contemporary version, Jaime Reyes (played by Xolo Maridueña), who becomes symbiotically connected to a technologically advanced scarab elevating Reyes to the mantle of Blue Beetle.
The film directed by Angel Manuel Soto stays very close to the established origins of the comic giving rise to Jaime Reyes, a young and wildly ambitious Latino who is looking to make something out of his life, when he comes in contact with an alien artifact — The Scarab, that once belonged to archeologist Dan Garrett, who was given superhuman powers when he bonded with it and fought crime as the first Blue Beetle. industrialist inventor Ted Kord was inspired by Garrett’s exploits and inherited The Scarab, though it unfortunately doesn’t bond with Kord and instead Kord adopts technology in his crime-fighting crusade when he assumes the mantle of Blue Beetle. It isn’t long before Reyes gets into the picture and his humble existence is turned upside down!
Swings Into Action!
Producer Zev Foreman is extremely vocal about the creative push to bring Blue Beetle to the big screen and how important the relevance of the hero, as a young man of Latino origins is to the DC cinematic franchise. Certainly, Jaime Reyes's very deep-rooted Latino background and culture play a significant importance to the character, especially in the development of his supporting cast. Reyes's family means a great deal to him and honoring them is paramount to the hero’s motivation. When his father, played by actor Damián Alcázar suffers a fatal heart attack, the loss reverberates throughout the family and motivates Jaime to fully immerse himself in becoming a hero.
Xolo Maridueña captures the spirit of Jaime Reyes, his genuine optimism and enthusiasm. The character has often been little more than a DC transplant for Marvel’s web-slinger, Peter Parker and the comparisons between the two are extremely palpable. It’s hard not to reconcile the similarities on the big screen, especially when The Scarab, Khaji-Da (voiced by Latin pop-princess Becky G) symbiotically bonds onto Jaime and grafts armor plating to his skin that allows him to fly at high altitudes, gives him super strength and create any number of weapons that Reyes can imagine. The carapace that forms around Reyes is eerily insect-like and speaks to him very much in the same way that Iron Man’s AI, Friday, is Tony Stark’s co-pilot.
The villainous Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon) wants The Scarab back and is prepared to use the technology to create an armored brigade, under the leadership of General Carapax (Raoul Trujillo) to sell to the highest bidder. The embittered CEO of Kord Industries is determined to obliterate everything in her path and reclaim what she feels has long been denied to her, including wrestling control of the corporation from out of the hands of her niece, Jenny (Bruna Marquezine), Ted Kord’s daughter. Jenny is the reason that The Scarab has landed on Reyes's plate, and they will need to work together to defend the legacy of the Blue Beetle and prevent Victoria from weaponizing its secrets.
This Looks Familiar
Blue Beetle doesn’t reinvent the wheel. It sticks very closely to the authentic origins of the character and opens the door to allowing another DC hero, this one with a much more diverse background than many of its contemporaries that have been adapted for the big screen. The relevance of which is now called into question as Gunn and Safran embark on their crusade to dismantle the DC Extended Cinematic Universe and effectively “reboot” the narrative that has been in crisis for some time now. The release of Blue Beetle makes for a very exciting open-in, but whether he’ll turn up again (in a sequel) or fits into their overall scheme of things may not matter at all.
For all of its glitz and power play, Blue Beetle lands like an exciting 2-hour pilot of a television series that might have premiered on The CW and joined the Arrowverse, if that primetime line-up hadn’t just been obliterated as well. So the likelihood of Blue Beetle having its day, this may be it — the home video may be the stand-alone to this hero’s legacy after all.
Get your #FansEyeView of the BLUE BEETLE trailer here:
DC’s BLUE BEETLE | starring Xolo Maridueña, Bruna Marquezine, Susan Sarandon, Raoul Trujillo, Becky G, and George Lopez, directed by Angel Manuel Soto is available now in 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and Digital Download. It features several special features that explore the legacy of the character and it goes behind the scenes to the making of the movie.
