If you were wondering if the new Adventure Time show Fionna and Cake is a spinoff or a sequel to the main series, the simple answer to this question is: yes <3
18.08.2023 - 16:05 / polygon.com / Jaime Reyes
One of the more frustrating things about the experience of marginalized people in modern U.S. culture is how rarely you can say what is actually on your mind. In spite of the constant calls to elevate marginalized voices, those calls often come with the unspoken requirement that those voices be polite, and that they don’t make anyone uncomfortable.
This is a wildly annoying contradiction, one that asks people of color or anyone who doesn’t conform to gender norms to take any number of small indignities in stride, educate the so-called majority, and do it in a way that makes the offenders feel good about themselves. This is how I think of Blue Beetle, a DC superhero movie made by people who clearly have a lot of thoughts about Latin American identity, but lack the leverage to address it with any edge. (Or maybe the willpower. It’s impossible for observers to know which.) They can’t find a way to broach that white discomfort, or to reflect something human.
DC Comics’ hero Blue Beetle was created in 1939 by Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski, then reimagined and given new identities several times over, until Keith Giffen, John Rogers, and Cully Hamner redefined him as a Mexican American kid in 2006. (They were a talented team working during a creatively fertile time in DC history, their whiteness notwithstanding.) His first blockbuster movie appearance tells the story of the character’s 2006 incarnation, Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña), a recent college graduate who encounters, and bonds with, an alien artifact called the Scarab. The Scarab, which contains the essence of an entity known as Khaji Da, uses gross body horror to grant Jaime incredible powers, an indestructible carapace, and the ability to form polymorphic weaponry on demand. He’s like Iron Man by way of David Cronenberg — a fun, intentional nod from the horror-loving filmmakers.
Blue Beetle is a charming romp of a film, but it’s desperately trying to punch above its weight class, peppering its story with constant nods to the Latin American experience, while also delivering the action and comic book Easter eggs expected of superhero cinema. It nods at characters’ anti-imperialist roots without naming the imperials they rebelled against — likely the United States. Via news clips, the movie shows the environmental destruction that Latin America suffers to fuel Silicon Valley innovation. But these weighty topics are only mentioned in passing. Blue Beetle mostly labors to be inoffensive, fun, and digestible. The story’s Latinidad is on constant display, but it’s rendered safe for white consumption.
I do not believe director Ángel Manuel Soto or writer Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer set out to make a film for a default-white audience. They bring a careful eye toward
If you were wondering if the new Adventure Time show Fionna and Cake is a spinoff or a sequel to the main series, the simple answer to this question is: yes <3
It took a month, but Barbie finally fell off her perch atop the domestic box office. Blue Beetle, the latest offering from the DC universe, leaped to No. 1 with a $25.4 million domestic bow, per Deadline — a meager opening for the superhero pic and the lowest for a DCEU offering to date. The figure comes in higher than Wonder Woman 1984’s $16.7M and a tad lower than The Suicide Squad’s $26.2M, but remember, those pics were released on HBO Max during the pandemic. Blue Beetle couldn’t even match Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ $30.1M, a film that finished with $167M worldwide.
James Gunn has debunked a rumor that Ben Affleck was supposed to make a cameo in .
star Xolo Maridueña is hoping his DC movie is a box office hit.
writer Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer is spending the premiere day picketing in support of the writers strike.
earned the lowest Thursday night previews of any other DC movie in 2023 at the box office.
With the movie now in theaters, people might have heard about the so-called “” promoting the film online. What exactly is this “battalion,” and why is it so involved with the movie? And what did the Blue Beetle Battalion do for the DC superhero movie? Here’s what you need to know.
With critics praising Blue Beetle, fans are wondering about the possibility of a. The film introduces Jaime Reyes, a college graduate who becomes the host of an alien Scarab that gives him superpowers and turns him into the hero of Palmera City. But will the Blue Beetle movie get a sequel, and when would it come out?
The movie contains plenty of, pop-culture references, and nods to other movies and video games. Do you want to know how the film hints at the rest of the DC Universe? Let’s find it out.
It’s hard these days to make a superhero movie without teasing another superhero movie to come, and DC’s Blue Beetle is no exception. The film — technically the first release in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s complete reboot of the DC movie universe, now branded as the DCU — saves one of its bigger mysteries for a possible sequel, and teases that sequel in a mid-credits sequence. There’s an end-credits sequence, too, but that one does its own thing entirely. Let’s dig in. (Spoilers ahead for Blue Beetle.)
The movie is only a few hours from its U.S. theatrical release, and fans are curious to hear whether there is a post-credits scene they should be aware of once the movie is over. Does Blue Beetle feature any additional end-credit footage of the DC hero once the names start rolling? Let’s find it out. No worries, this post is spoiler free.
The movie features two post-credit scenes that add context to the story and open the door for more adventures. What happens in those scenes? Now that the DC Studios movie is already out, let’s find out what’s happening in the post-credit scenes.