Even a little heart goes a long way, and Blue Beetle has more than enough. Based on a DC comic book with origins stretching back to 1939, the film follows Jaime Reyes (the third incarnation of Blue Beetle in the comics), a young Mexican man who returns to his family’s home after college, only to learn his family is losing their house, their auto shop has shut down, and his father is not well. But he’s about to have his life changed even more significantly by the Scarab, a biotechnological alien artifact which can create a powerful exoskeletal armor/flight suit around its user and conjure up energy weapons as well.

Jaime (winningly played by Xolo Maridueña of Cobra Kai fame) is given the Scarab by Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine), whose family company, Kord Industries, lords over Palmera City and plans to replace the barrio where Jaime’s family lives with the same expensive,...