Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show, I'm your host Paul and this video we're breaking down
the ending of Blue Beetle.
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The new DC movie is now out and throughout this video we're gonna be going through what
happens at the end and what's going on with the DCU right now. It's all a bit of a mess
and there's lots of things kinda up in the air at the moment with the quote unquote reboot
headed up by James Gunn.
We're gonna be going through it all but Heavy Spoilers ahead so if you don't want anything
ruined then I highly recommend that you turn off now. With that out the way, huge thank
you for clicking this, now let's get into Blue Beetle.
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Ok so the film follows Jaime Reyes and his family as he finds himself in possession of
an ancient alien relic known as The Scarab. Bonding to Jaime it begins a symbiotic relationship
with him that grants him an exo-skeleton with incredible powers.
Taking on Carapax The Indestructible Man and his boss Victoria Kord Jaime learns to get
to grips with his new abilities and he becomes a hero for Palmera City. Now this is a fictional
place from the comics and originally the character was from El Paso Texas. However the comic
company wanted to give him a place to call his own which is of course in the same vein
as cities like Gotham and Metropolis. Bit of trivia for you but Palmera City was actually
created for the movie but it appeared first in the comics due to them being able to pump
em out quicker.
Home of Kord industries this is a big location that most of the movie centres around with
it sort of being like how the oscorp building kept popping up in the Amazing Spider-man
films. It's here where Jaime gets the scarab from and this is given to him by Gwen Stac...sorry
Jenny Kord.
We actually visit the mansion that she grew up in at one point in the film and it's here
that we get a tease towards Ted Kord. Ted is a big character from the comics and he
was the second version of the blue beetle. Now if you recognise the guy in the painting
this is because Jason Sedukis has been cast in the role.
Though he doesnt appear in the movie persay we do get some lines of dialogue that he spouts
off which takes us into that mid credits scene.
After taking over Kord industries due to Carapax self destructing himself and victoria we see
as Jenny says shes going back to her old home. Jaime offers her a lift and from here we cut
to the credits.
Now after this a broadcast is played and we get Ted Kord sort of in an almost Zod like
hologram message thing. From here we then get focus on the Kord Blue Beetle suit and
it lets us know that Kord is infact a live.
Thought to be dead throughout the movie this teases that the character will come into the
next film if James Gunn decides to make a followup. I'm kind of in a weird place with
DC post credit scenes at the moment and I actually looked back at all the past movies
and realised how many of their ending teases were pointless.
Josstice League teased the legion of doom and deathstroke which is never gonna happen,
snyders waaaay better version teased the knightmare timeline which, I doubt that's going down
now, Both shazams teased Mr Mind, Black Adam had Henry Cavill, Flash ended by showing us
George Clooney and I'm sure there's another one I can't remember. Either way that's at
least six teases to things that have been mothballed and due to the opening weekend
predictions for this I doubt it's gonna set the world on fire either. I went to go to
my local cinema and they had absolutely no showings there and had to travel to the next
cinema over the river in north shields which was just doing 4 for the whole day. Compare
this to movies like Mission Impossible which had showings every hour in multiple formats
and it doesnt feel like there's that much confidence in the film unfortunately. I think
DC saw what happened with the box office of their last films and just kinda dumped it
but Gunn has still remained adament that Reyes will remain in his universe.
So if Ted Kord does come across then you probably wanna know eveyrthing about him and if I haven't
been a negative nancy then the next part of the videos for you.
Now the original Blue Beetle was named Dan Garret and like a lot of superheroes tragedy
struck his life from a young age. His father was a police officer who was killed my a criminal
and this made him vow to become a crimefighter. This was all shown in the Mystery Men Comics
of 1939 which were then later reprinted as part of a Blue Beetle annual by charlton comics.
Technically they didnt own the full rights to the character, they'd just purchased the
printing plates which gave them somewhat the ability to put the character out there.
Now, during 1964 Charlton just said f**k it and decided to create a new Blue Beetle with
them just adding an extra T to Dan Garretts surname. They scrapped his powers and origin
story and came up with a new one in which he was an archaeologist.
This is somewhat riffed upon in the opening of the movie with us getting Newspaper clippings
that show Ted Kord funded his research. That's in the scientific review which has an Atom
symbol and we also get one from the Daily planet.
We find out Garret found a mystical scarab in egypt and just like the comics it bonded
with him before bonding with Jaime.
Now where Ted Kord comes into it is that Charlton decided to get rid of Garrett in 1966 and
they replaced him with Ted Kord. Kord was a former student of Garret who was at his
side when Garrett died. Perishing in battle Garrett went to pass the scarab onto him but
it was unable to be transfered over.
Now Charlton eventually ended up getting bought by DC and with them came a lot of other characters
like the Question and Captain Atom. Alan Moore actually originally wanted to use these as
part of a series he was working on but DC shut that idea down because of what he was
planning to do with them.
In the end he still continued ahead with the story but he made somewhat plays on their
characters which would go onto become Watchmen.
As for Kord he's a genius level inventor who has all manner of gadgets and gizmos at his
disposable. Moore brought all of these over for Niteowl and Watchmen and even Archie is
based on the bug.
After Garret's death Ted took the scarab with him but he didn't really use it. It appeared
in both Crisis on Infinite Earths and the Death Of Superman but it only ever really
reacted when attacked.
I can kinda see him become a mentor to Jaime and potentially the pair together could study
the scarab and see how it works. Thats kinda how the comics went too with the Scarab skipping
from Dan to Jaime and granting both with powers.
I think the next movie will likely centre on them searching for Ted which is when they'll
use his intelligence and expertise to truly get into the backstory of it's origins. Kinda
what I think theyre doing with the ten rings in Shang-Chi and we may learn more about the
alien origin and where things could be going in the future with it.
Now the post credits scene of the movie is more just a sort in joke for the film with
us getting a clip a claymation version of El Chapulin Colorado.
it's a claymation version of a scene from El Chapulin Colorado which was a Mexican Superhero
comedy show that aired in the 70s. This is also what Jamies uncle names his machine after
and it has the red and yellow on it from the characters costume.
This is just kinda more giving a little nod towards latino culture and It pops up at one
point in the movie with Rudys machine playing it over the security footage. Played by Felipe
Esparaza this is just bringing things full circle from that and ending the movie with
a little joke.
Now as for the future of the DCU I think that unfortunately Gunns kinda stuck between a
rock and a hard place with it. He was of course brought on in a time where a lot of movies
still had to be released and thus he has to go out and promote these like theyre part
of his universe but it's becoming clear that the audience interest just isn't really there
with this stuff.
The last seven DC films connected to this universe have all flopped and due to the low
predictions of Blue Beetle I unfortunately feel like that's gonna be the case here too.
Kinda makes you wonder whats going on at the company cos I dunno how many flops in a row
it can take for them to realise that maybe they should just hard reboot it. Back in the
day if a film did badly it just didn't get a sequel but now studios are so tied to their
shared universes that they refuse to let go. If Aquaman 2 bombs then that's gonna be 9
flops in a row which is absolutely insane when you think about it. Youd think third
movie in theyd start to realise but Gunn has made it clear he's still going ahead with
bringing elements of these other movies across that he thinks works.
We of course recently had Gal Gadot discussing how they were putting things in place for
Wonder Woman 3 and Margot Robbie has been announced as remaining as Harley Quinn. We
of course have Peacemaker, Waller and some of the other characters continuing but there's
some new faces too in the form of Batman and Superman.
I kinda feel like they should've just called it a recast instead of a reboot cos it doesn't
actually seem like much is changing when you get down to it.
Henry and Ben are both out but to be honest it seemed like that was the case a couple
of years ago anyway. Both came back for Black Adam and The Flash with Ben also getting a
scene in Aquaman 2 that we know has been cut. Still though there's been talks for years
of them getting recast so I think they couldve had gunn take over without even announcing
the reboot.
The biggest criticism with Warner Bros handling of DC has always been the mismanagement behind
it and unfortunately when characters are announced as being out one week and in the next it doesnt
seem like things are going that smoothly now.
Though they're making a lot of noise about how these characters are staying in the universe
I think behind the scenes there will probably be a lot of panic because of how much money
these movies are losing. It's been reported that Warner Brothers lost a billion on just
Shazam 2, The Flash and Blue Beetle and they must be wondering whether to salvage or scrap
it.
There was once a time when you just had to say something was a superhero movie and people
would pile in to see it but now this year on the whole, most of them have done worse
than other franchises. Not you Indy.
Makes you wonder if the interest for a shared comic book universe will even be there by
the time we hit Superman Legacy .
Looking at Joker and The Batman, both did big numbers and theyre the two DC movies released
since the shared universe began that arent connected to it. This was the company that
started doing crazy stuff cos Man Of Steel and Batman V Superman didn't hit the numbers
they were after but I think if they got those films box offices today they'd actually be
over the moon.
Now I know I'm probably coming across as super negative on this but I'm just trying to be
realistic and think about how this is shaping the industry. I actually think that the poor
performance of comic book movies in general will put studios off investing so much into
them going forward as theyre no longer the golden goose that they once were.
Now for arguments sake lets say that Gunn and the studio say f**k it, this is the plan
and we will be keeping these characters around. I actually think they might be incorporated
into more creative ways than just getting their own solo movies. The team ups to me
are the ways to go and with us knowing whats coming in Gunns slate I actually think that'll
be the way theyre handled.
Gunns said that there's still some movies that haven't been announced yet and I think
this will probably be a Justice League and or JSA film. The latter was one of the best
parts of Black Adam and with Waller being behind them that could be something that's
brought forward into this new universe.
Garret was in the Golden Age JSA team and Blue Beetle has been part of the JLA and JLI,
young justice and Teen Titans as well.
Think they will probably just combine it into either a Young Justice or JSA thing and I
think teamups is the way to take the heroes that maybe didn't break the bank at the box
office.
They can combine popular characters with slightly lesser known ones and use them to all boost
each other in these team up movies to build up their names. Now that's not saying Blue
Beetle isn't popular cos I know he's got a big fanbase but yeah, just with this being
his first movie it might be the way to do it. I think the JSA will actually play a big
part in Gunns plans too as they were brought up again at the end of Shazam 2.
That was in a post credits scene that James Gunn approved and we know that he's been nixing
others so that they dont promise certain things. For example Henry Cavill, Michael Keaton and
Sasha Caille were supposed to appear at the end of the Flash but they reshot this to instead
include just Clooney.
So leaving this in shows he probably hoped that in some ways it could be brought up again
in the future and we might get these characters teaming up rather than purely solo stories.
I think that's probably the smarter way to go as they might not be selling many tickets
on their own but as one united group they could push things a lot more.
Now as for the film as a whole I think that it's definitely one of the stronger ones of
these dceu films that have been released the last years. The entire family angle works
really well and even if I dont think that the movie hits the mark on everything, it
still has a lot of things in it that deserve to be brought across the future movie. There
are moments where you can tell that this was originally shot for HBO Max and with a bigger
budget and push something involving these characters in the future could do even better.
Xolo Mariduena does a great job as Blue Beetle and it's nice to see him getting the spotlight
after killing it in Cobra Kai for years. The family are great too and I think they add
another dimension to the film that often isn't shown in superhero movies.
Unfortunately this kinda leads into the cliches of stuff like 'your family is what makes you
weak' and so on and you can probably tell beat for beat exactly how this movie is going
on. I think the main issue the movie has is that it feels derivative of a lot of films
that have come before. There's lots of things in the film where they clearly looked at Spider-man
and the MCU as a whole. This is very much what Id call a phase 1 movie and it comes
with both the positives and negatives that that had. Theres some humour that works and
sometimes doesnt and also some underdeveloped villains that dont quite live up to the potential
they had.
There was a time in the mcu where the bad guys basically just ended up becoming the
heroes in a different coloured suit and this is something that happens here too.
Now I think the positives far outweigh the negatives here and there's definitely a lot
to like.
Bruna Marquenzine is brilliant as Jenny Kord and this is a film with a really strong supporting
cast that has happened to push it to a level that it might not have reached without them.
There's also Carapax the Indestructible Man as well who too in the comics was an archaeologist
which ties into the whole Dan Garrett thing. They kinda make him a kraven the hunter/iron
monger figure here and it's an update that brings a pretty obscure character to the forefront
in an exciting way.
A tthe end the backstory really made you feel for him and I kinda think they couldve dropped
that in earlier to make you way more attached to the character.
Susan Sarandon is just sort of the....we are using this technology to create weapons kind
of thing and though they have her do some really evil over the top stuff to make her
look evil it's just kind of the racist evil CEO stereotype.
Again all the family stuff works well, especially with the emotional beats that happen with
Jaime's dad and trying to save his home.
Stuff like this makes it really stand out and I think they couldve leaned into elements
like this a lot more as unfortunately at the moment it just feels like ANOTHER comic book
movie instead of a must see one. That third act just falls into the same cliches that
have dogged Comic Book movies for the last couple of years. It's uninteresting cgi fights
that make the movie become mundane when it had so much potential to do things differently.
Even lines like 'you shouldve killed me when ou had the chance' 'I need to find my purpose'
'maybe this found you for a reason' Just kinda make the movie feel like stuff youve seen
before which is what often holds back new heroes due to it creating instant comparisons
instead of allowing it to feel fresh.
Now It unfortunately got released during a very weird time in the DC movie slate because
there's just a mass of confusion surrounding it. Its supposed to be standalone but it may
be part of the DCEU which is something Warner Bros have decided to get rid of. It's also
potentially part of a rebooted universe and someone who may or may not be the first DCU
hero. Everythings kind of in a state of flux surrounding it but judging it on its own merits,
yeah I think it was good. Also an ignorant secretary calls him Jamie Reyes at one point
cos everyone, everyone calls him Jamie. They also have a big belly burger box too, Jaime
graduated from Gotham Law, Supes and The Flash are mentioned and yeah lots of nods to the
comics.
I think it was risky moving this from HBO to the big screen but I do think it deserves
the push as there are things general audiences will enjoy. Those not burned out on comic
book movies will probably like this a lot but I doubt its gonna change anyones mind
whos starting to feel that the genres becoming a bit tired. As Rudy says in the film, Blue
Beetles like Batman just not as good and yeah, kinda feel like thats a good summary of where
the film stands in the DC pantheon of movies.
In the end Blue Beetle was a solid movie that I think is definitely worth checking out.
Giving it an 8/10 with it being probably the best way that they couldve introduced the
character. Unfortunately it comes at a weird time when Superhero movies feel like theyre
in a strange place. Had it been released a couple years back even I think it wouldve
had more interest but yeah, everything going on with DC and the genre in general probably
held it back.
Also I know its like first weekend and I've been a bit doom and I am hoping this thing
has legs its just kinda...yeah opening weekend predictions, pre ticket sales and just the
way DC movies have been going in general, its all kinda...yeah...sucks balls. Maybe
they should've sat on this and got Superman Legacy out and then dropped it but yeah, kinda
going back to something ive said numerous times where there was no need for Gunn to
announce the reboot until after these movies were out. Man couldve waited until January
2024 without anything changing but...going off track again there.
Either way I'd obviously love to hear your thoughts on the movie and whether you agree
with us or not.
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With that out the way, huge thank you for sitting through the video, I've been your
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