The Last Post for the Summer 2023 release schedule brings with it a superhero adventure with more charm and fewer notions than many of its peers.
The online naysayers were primed to give Blue Beetle a hiding, but movie 14 in the DC Extended Universe turns a hitherto underexposed central character into one that you want to see on screen again.
This origins story finds the just-graduated Jaime Reyes (a winning turn from Cobra Kai's Xolo Maridueña) transformed into the battlesuited Blue Beetle when his search for a job takes a turn for the weird - becoming the caretaker of an alien artefact and the target for corporate villainy.
Powered by family, Latino culture, and 80s energy, Blue Beetle makes fast work of its two-hour duration. Here, director Ángel Manuel Soto (above) goes big on humour and heart and gets the vibe exactly right, ensuring there is plenty for adults and loads for viewers aged six to eleven.
With nifty nods to Aliens, Predator, and Escape from New York - among others - and political points amidst all the action, Blue Beetle ticks a lot of the anorak boxes but loses a few credits for not giving Susan Sarandon enough to do as the evil CEO and going a bit cookie-cutter with the robotic henchman. No deal-breakers, mind, for what is blockbuster season's unexpected treat.
There's a post-credits scene. It's deserved.
