Board 8 > Blue Beetle Review Zone

(+) Yeah! (+)

Current 81% Fresh after 89 reviews.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blue_beetle

Honestly did not expect this. My gut instinct was there must be 6 reviews or something. I'm a Mark for this character, but I just assumed the movie would be bad??

It's going to tank either way but good word of mouth would be nice.

Weird

The trailers really made it look like a streaming quality movie (which is fine) that is getting a full blockbuster treatment (less fine), I was expecting it to get blasted for that.

Though DC movie impressions usually start high and sink so idk yet

Reading reviews it seems the main problem with it is that it plays it super safe and just sticks with a standard origin story movie plot.

Which, you know...it's Blue Beetle, you actually kind of need that. It's a fan favorite character that notoriously sells like dog shit, he is not well known lol.

Also iffy CG, which seems to be an industry wide problem right now for the genre. Not sure what's causing that, but Marvel is having the same issue.

Yea I think Guardians 3 is the only one recently that hasn't had issues with the CG, at least from what I've heard.

Maybe the major studios' treatment of their CG artists and studios are finally catching up to them!

Please be good
Please be good
Please be good

Bruh I'm settling for decent, good would just be a bonus.

I think chances are very high that this is the last DC movie that isn't under the Gunn banner, because nobody wants Aquaman 2 to come out.

They released The Flash. No way they dont release Aquaman 2 as well imo.

swordz9 posted...

They released The Flash. No way they dont release Aquaman 2 as well imo.

But the Flash released after a bunch of extremely positive test audience reactions.

Test Audiences hate Aquaman 2 and the actors don't even want it to release.

Worth noting that this has the same % on RT as GotG3, but a rather worse average score. Lots of 6/10 and 7/10 reviews.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Test Audiences hate Aquaman 2 and the actors don't even want it to release.

You have a link to that? I'm curious which actors are opposed.

I thought it looked decent, but the hype has been decimated for me because of the whole DCU reboot situation even if this one won't necessarily be a victim of it? I'll still end up seeing it Monday if not this weekend, but I've got higher priorities so I'm in no rush.

MacArrowny posted...

You have a link to that? I'm curious which actors are opposed.

It's nothing as blatant as that, but Mamoa is in active talks to play another major DC character, so Aquaman 2 wouldn't be doing him any favors especially if it's bad.

Yeah The Flash reviewed okay-ish, not this well but its currently sitting at an alright 64% on Rotten Tomatoes. That would be effectively tied with Aquaman 1. However I think the film bombing financially gave people a different picture of its critical reception. By most accounts the film itself is okay (I havent seen it) it is just that nobody wanted to watch it because of everything else about it.

Either way it is going to be very, very funny if this outgrosses The Flash on 60% of the budget.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Also iffy CG, which seems to be an industry wide problem right now for the genre. Not sure what's causing that, but Marvel is having the same issue.

Here is a very good article on the subject:

https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/hollywood-vfx-industry-breaking-point

The short version is massive crunch, not enough time given to studios and very poor working conditions. This is caused by a number of factors including too many projects thanks to the rise of big budget streaming shows, CG being used to make changes and fix mistakes rather than generate effects, lack of unionisation, executives changing their minds at the last minute, film studios going with the lowest bidder to save money leading to VFX houses cutting costs to underbid each other, and burnout of experienced employees. I really recommend reading the article though, its an interesting read and quite eye-opening.

This is an industry-wide issue but not a universal one. If a film is directed well regarding CG and gives the VFX houses enough time and money, effects can be amazing. If something looks bad its usually because they werent given the time. As for Guardians I also think the use of practical sets rather than relying on greenscreen or the Volume helped the effects shots stand out more rather than the film distracting you with backdrops that are not quite real.

Hoping Blue Beetle is good. I always liked the character.

Aquaman 2 is bound to be awful, but it made so much money with the first one that it feels like they ought to release it anyway. It's frankly ridiculous that it hasn't been pushed out yet. Just release it in whatever state it is and get it over with. Cash out. And move on to James Gunn's universe.

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

Hoping Blue Beetle is good. I always liked the character.

Aquaman 2 is bound to be awful, but it made so much money with the first one that it feels like they ought to release it anyway. It's frankly ridiculous that it hasn't been pushed out yet. Just release it in whatever state it is and get it over with. Cash out. And move on to James Gunn's universe.

How much brand damage is acceptable though? Is there any world where AM2 wouldn't underperformed compared to AM1? I would honestly expect them to lose money on this if they release it isn't rad of writing it off.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

How much brand damage is acceptable though? Is there any world where AM2 wouldn't underperformed compared to AM1? I would honestly expect them to lose money on this if they release it isn't rad of writing it off.

It's losing money regardless. But they've tanked so much into it in general with the already bloated budget on top of the many reshoot costs.

Frankly, I thought they should have wrote off The Flash, but they didn't. Aquaman 2 is at least going to make more money than that.

But The Flash came out, sucked, and everyone's already past it and still saying "We'll wait for the reboot." Same thing can happen for Aquaman 2. Just ship the fucking thing out and we'll forget about it when the new media buzz happens when WB is hyping up a brand new universe.

I will say, always remember that surprises do happen. People wrote off Blue Beetle as a colossal failure, now its reviewed well and is tracking much better at the box office than it was. People wrote off Elemental after it released and it went on to be a success. I dont think Aquaman 2 making money is the wildest scenario in the world.

I"m very excited, I hope its good!

I try not to let trailers influence me, but man, did that trailer seem super generic. Jaime has long been a beloved standby for me (and for so many others) in the DCU. Seeing a character that debuted when I started getting into comics and kind of grew up alongside me having this opportunity is pretty exciting.

I just wish the scarab had more personality rather than sounding like a generic AI/Alexa.

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

The trailers really made it look like a streaming quality movie (which is fine) that is getting a full blockbuster treatment (less fine)

It looks like that because it is literally that.

It was surprisingly decent. Misses the mark in some respects but I'd say the good outweighed the bad.

As predicted it's dropping a bit, but still holding out OK!

Audience score is high but that doesn't means anything.

https://twitter.com/Punnyshment/status/1693022141795434945

thats how excited I was for it

I got a BLUE BEETLE PRESENTED BY VICKS VAPORUB ad on my Facebook feed today

presumably thanks to this topic