Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-Review by Professor Popinjay

(2023)

The “passing of the torch” motif has worked before. It worked in The Mask of Zorro (1998). It worked in Ant-Man (year). Both of those films had the “original” hero present and mentoring the new guy. Blue Beetle had the new guy of course. But the old guy is only mentioned. He’s not actually there. Instead, we get George Lopez (of whom I am not particularly fond) bumbling around and figuring stuff out for us.

I guess that’s interesting. George’s character wasn’t necessarily unlikable in this until he called Batman a fascist. Then I was done with him. Me thinks his assessment might be based on the Zack Snyder version of Batman.

I didn’t know much about the Blue Beetle coming into this anyway and that made me wonder how much anyone else knew. Would anyone know or care that there was a Hank Pim-esque Blue Beetle predecessor? I didn’t even know if he was DC or what he was. It looked like another Iron Man clone, honestly. I half wondered if this was connected to Beetle Borgs. God forbid! That show was bizarre!

I suppose I should address the elephant beetle in the room. Most reviews I’ve read talk about the main character’s moral code inducing him to refrain from killing. His close knit family on the other hand, while admirably supportive and proactive, seemed to be bloodthirsty berserkers, irrevocably dropping baddies permanently left and right. They gave no efs.

The family’s disregard for human life was often played for laughs, which can have its place in fiction sometimes, but seeing this disregard juxtaposed against the hero’s moral fortitude makes me wonder if the family realize their super-powered relative isn’t a psychopath like they are.

Also, I was trying to figure out why Grandma was so militaristic. Her age and the time this film was set puts her in her prime around the founding of the Zapatista Liberation Army but they were a fairly peaceful group… they wouldn’t hurt bystanders anyway. Grandma acts more like one of the Daughters of Freedom of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. They were a bit more hostile as you can see from this picture of the organization’s founder Blanca Canales.

But our hero, Jaime, and his family were in El Paso, Texas and don’t seem to have much to do with Puerto Rico so I don’t know. Maybe she’s older than I thought and she fought at the Alamo. Or maybe I’m overthinking this.

I liked the family aspect. But this film as a whole went just as it came, with little regard from myself. Though if they made a sequel, I’d be interested to learn more about Jaime’s predecessor if anything.