'Blue Beetle' Is Far Better Than Any Of Us Expected
DC is in a weird spot. They have been steadily getting crushed by Marvel for the last 10+ years and made a massive move by tabbing James Gunn to take over and fix the mess they've made. The biggest problem is that Gunn has had to ride out the remaining momentum before he can get a clean slate. That's meant promoting Black Adam(which released a couple weeks before he took over), Shazam 2(stinker), The Flash(arguably the most overhyped blockbuster of all time), the upcoming Aquaman 2(gonna stink, has had to reshoot the ending like 50 times) and Blue Beetle.
There is one thing that all those other projects have going for them: Name Recognition. Black Adam had the rock, Shazam 2 had Levi + a solid first entry to build off of, the flash had Miller (blurred line between infamy/fame) and the hype and Aquaman has Momoa. Blue Beetle has none of that. The biggest star of the movie is a tie between George Lopez and Susan Sarandon. On top of that, Blue Beetle is about as far from a household comic book character name as you can get. So you have all of these aspects working against the success of the movie, except it turns out they are actually strengths.
The total lack of expectations basically allowed this movie to create it's own little world and take you for a fun ride as an audience member. It essentially functions the same as Shazam and has all the same types of family charm. Xolo Maridueña is really solid as a Peter Parker-type hero and the family is goofy and plays well. The effects are also surprisingly good considering the sorry state the genre has been in lately. Especially following the disastrous ones in The Flash.
The simplicity of the movie helps but also hurts. It has a generic corporate bad guy performed poorly by Sarandon. There is basically no feature, plot point or joke that you can't predict. Here, that's ok. This isn't a movie like the Dark Knight where I will recommend everyone go rush and see it. However if you are looking for a risk-free movie to see with a date or with your family, this is it.