‘Blue Beetle’ Described As “A Love Letter To The Multiple Ways Of Being Latino” And “An Epic Celebration Of Diversity”
John F. Trent
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Culture Reporter at Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Día Victor Ramos Rosado shared his first impressions of the film describing it as “an epic celebration of diversity.”
Xolo Maridueña as Blue Beetle in Blue Beetle (2023), DC Studios
Rosado shared his thoughts to Twitter in Spanish, but using Twitter’s translate function he wrote, “First impression of Blue Beetle: A movie full of heart. A love letter to the multiple ways of being Latino. As epic a celebration of diversity as any major Hollywood superhero production.”
He concluded, “None of that would be possible without [director] Angel Manuel Soto.”
Victor Ramos Rosado
RELATED: Report: ‘Blue Beetle’ To Feature Illegal Immigration Allegory
Rosado’s comments are not surprising given much of the marketing for the film, especially interviews given by Angel Manuel Soto and the film’s Xolo Maridueña have focused on identity politics.
Most recently, Soto confirmed the film features an illegal immigration allegory. MovieMaker reported, “Before the movie begins, the [Reyes] family has immigrated to America from Mexico, but [Jamie Reyes’ father] Alberto doesn’t have documentation, so he’s under the constant threat of deportation.”
They go on to note, “Though the film doesn’t depict an ICE raid, it does include a scene that echoes one. Kord Industries invades the family’s home in a scene that can play as just another dramatic moment in a superhero movie – or be taken as symbolic of events that tear apart real families.”
George Lopez as Uncle Rudy and Xolo Maridueña as Jaime Reyes in Blue Beetle (2023), DC Studios
Soto told the outlet, “There is a history that exists before an ICE raid. A history that includes traveling miles, and danger, working hard, becoming a family, creating memories, and thinking that everything is going to be okay.”
“But all of a sudden, everything that you have fought for, everything that you have worked for, everything that you have built, is now burning. I needed the depiction to be triggering, because it’s the experience of many,” he continued.
The Reyes family in Blue Beetle (2023), DC Studios
This allegory will also most likely have a racial component given Susan Sarandon, who plays Victoria Kord in the movie described her character as the representative of the “white military industrial complex.”
She told Jimmy Fallon, “What’s fabulous about [Blue Beetle] is it’s the first Latinx hero that has his own movie. Even better all of the Mexican — because his family is Mexican and all the actors were Mexican and it’s in Spanish so it’s subtitled.”
She then shared details about her character, Victoria Kord, “I’m, of course, the bad guy. I’m the white military industrial complex.”
“So I had a fabulous time because there’s nothing better than being bad,” she added.
Susan Sarandon as Victoria Kord in Blue Beetle (2023), DC Studios
Maridueña also informed Empire, “The goal was to create a movie for a young me and a young Angel [Manuel Soto, the film’s director,] that said, ‘Hey, man, someone who looks like you or comes from a similar background can be a superhero.”
He added, “The second thing was to open more doors for people like us. As fun as it is to get into this superhero world where everything is [dialled up to] 110 per cent, [it’s] the characters… that I’ve [most] related to.”
Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) wears the Blue Beetle suit for the first time in Blue Beetle (2023), DC Studios
The official description for the film states, “Recent college grad Jaime Reyes returns home full of aspirations for his future, only to find that home is not quite as he left it. As he searches to find his purpose in the world, fate intervenes when Jaime unexpectedly finds himself in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology: the Scarab.”
It concludes, “When the Scarab suddenly chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, he is bestowed with an incredible suit of armor capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the Super Hero BLUE BEETLE.”
Xolo Maridueña as Blue Beetle in Blue Beetle (2023), DC Studios
What do you make of this first impression and nearly all of the so-called praise is focused on the tenets of critical race theory and woke ideology?
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