Perhaps the most unexpected of choices for a superhero movie was Blue Beetle, a comic book character who has had three distinctly different variants over the last 80-plus years. He’s never been what you would consider a top-tier superhero either in power or popularity. So following the box office disappointments that were “Black Adam”, “Shazam: Fury of the Gods”, and “The Flash” (soapbox: all of them deserved bigger audiences), it’s hard to see “Blue Beetle” being the big boost DC Studios needs.

But comic book movies have proven to be a weird thing and at times impossible to predict. “Blue Beetle”, from director Ángel Manuel Soto, has been touted by DC’s new creative head James Gunn as the first confirmed on-screen character in his own rebooted cinematic universe. That alone might spur the interest of those already invested in what Gunn is doing. I liked DC’s old guard (well, most of them) and remain unsure about Gunn. Unfortunately “Blue Beetle” doesn’t do anything to win my confidence in DC’s new direction.

“Blue Beetle” is based on the most recent iteration of the titular character, Jaime Reyes (played by Xolo Maridueña). Fresh out of college, Jaime returns to his fictional hometown of Palmera City where he reunites with his tight-knit and spirited family. They include his noble father Alberto (Damián Alcázar) and his supportive mother Rocio (Elpidia Carrillo), his crass younger sister Milagro (Belissa Escobedo), his caring grandmother Nana (Adriana Barraza), and his conspiracy theorist uncle Rudy (George Lopez).

But it’s not all sunshine and roses. Jaime learns that a lot has changed while he was away. His father suffered a heart attack, they lost their family store, and now they’re about to lose their house. So rather than go to graduate school, Jaime pledges to help his family get back on their feet. He thinks he’s found a way after he’s offered an interview at mega-corporation Kord Industries by Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine), the niece of the company’s CEO Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon). But things quickly fall apart.

It turns out that Victoria has sinister plans that involve a “world destroying” alien weapon called the Scarab. Through a series of rather silly events Jaime finds himself in possession of the Scarab which (for some reason) chooses him as its new host and grants him superpowers. He gets some admittedly cool looking blue and black exoskeleton armor and the ability to conjure up energized weapons just by talking to the little voice that comes with it. How does all of that work? Heck if I know. The movie doesn’t explain much of anything.

And that’s the basic setup for this woefully by-the-numbers origin story. Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer’s copycat script is frustratingly predictable and formulaic to the point of feeling generic. And that’s a real shame considering the long overdue Latino representation. “Blue Beetle” is content with lazily latching onto Latino culture rather than telling an interesting and original story within it. Thankfully there are a couple of good scenes where Soto tones down the silliness and lets his characters breathe. But they’re few and far between.

It gets pretty maddening over time. The writing leans heavily on its domestic charms yet confines its characters within a conventional copy-and-paste story. Along the way it makes several heavy-handed statements on class, race, sexism, immigration, imperialism, etc., but none of them have bite. As for Maridueña, he shows moments of leading man promise. But even he’s dragged down by material that has him either screaming incessantly or acting like a Peter Parker knock-off.

To make matters worse, then you have the movie’s big baddie which (if only this was just hyperbole) is one of the worst villains in comic book movie history. I wish I was being overly dramatic, but Sarandon’s Victoria Kord is as clichéd and on-the-nose as any antagonist you’ll see. There’s nothing remotely interesting about her, her actions, her evil plan, her motivations. Even her shortchanged henchman (Raul Max Trujillo in a thankless role) is more compelling.

By the third act things really get hokey. The CGI kicks into overdrive – some of it is kinda cool; some of it is kinda suspect. And of course we get even more screaming from Maridueña. The warm and sudsy ending puts a nice cap on it all, but I wish it left me feeling like it was clearly wanted me to feel. Instead I was grumbling about all the wasted potential. Hey, at least the Bug ship (yes there’s a Bug ship) was pretty cool. But should a Bug ship be the best thing in a movie that has family as its centerpiece? Probably not.

VERDICT – 2 STARS