For what it's worth, this is not an origin story yet is designed to be one, atleast for the main lead. After graduation, Jaime Reyes returns back to his family who are near bankrupt and on the verge to lose their home. Desperate to save the house, he looks for a job and lands at Kord Tower, after an invitation from Jenny Kord. Meanwhile, Kord Industries CEO Victoria Kord, is a greedy woman who wants to control an alien species Scarab for it's technological power, to create a deadly weapon. Jenny's attempt to steal this Scarab leads to Jaime getting hold of it and eventually becoming the host. What follows is, Jaime realizing his purpose and acknowledging his connection with Scarab.
Blue Beetle clearly has arrived a decade late, which is also what works in it's favour. There is no pressure of building in/adding on to the DC universe. All it aims for, is to be a simple silly fun entertainer, going over the top at every opportunity and yet succeed in entertaining. This is simply not the kind of film one should take seriously. The humor is hit and miss, thankfully the emotions work well. The Latino superhero does leave a lasting impression. There is not much about the Scarabs so the film directly focuses on Reyes becoming the new Blue Beetle while casually dropping the fact that there were others before.
Susan Sarandon's Victoria isn't evil enough whereas her own weapon Carapax isn't menacing enough and are barely serviceable. What does work is the goofiness of the Reyes family and right dose of father-son dynamic, because what's a DC superhero without that? The action set pieces are generic and like I said, the film still delivers on providing basic harmless entertainment. The post credit scene does set it up for a standalone sequel without burdening itself from being part of DCU's planned future.
