Blue Beetle (2023)

I have seen many a superhero origin story in my time and this one appears to follow all the road signs to get to the end of an all too familiar story. Teen gets some kind of super power and has to overcome his own fears and doubts to become the hero he was meant to be. This can go one of two ways. It can be great or it can be another bland train wreck of a lost opportunity. The trailer pretty much tells you all you need to know.

As per usual we start with an evil corporation searching for an alien artifact called the Scarab. Susan Sarandon's character has been searching for it for 15 years but of course it will fall into the hands of a young kid called Jaime Reyes, whose family has problems of their own. His uncle, George Lopez is a big time conspiracy theorist and technological wizard.

Add to the mix the young niece Jenny of evil Susan Sarandon who is building OMAC, the one man army corp battle suits to sell to the military. Of course Jenny will become the love interest and the one who puts Jaime in the path of the Blue Beetle Scarab after Jaime loses his job and goes to work for her corporation. He needs to money to save the family's home.

Jenny runs into Jaime and offers him a job which leads to him acquiring the scarab by accident. Once Jaime is chosen by the scarab, he goes through a process of learning how to use the advanced alien weaponry and is eventually called upon to become a hero to save the world from evil and save his family while finding his true power in the love of his family.

The Scarab gives it's user various superpowers which Jaime is forced to use. It's a pretty sweet piece of technology once Jamie gets a handle on it, Even the evil bad guy learns his lessons,

Of course everything turns out good in the end just like you knew it would all along. The special effects are neat and the tweens will enjoy this one. Nothing new but sometimes familiar is a good place to be.