Now Showing: Blue Beetle

Blue Beetle
Genre: Action/Superhero/Sci-Fi
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Writer: APJ
Based on DC Comics characters
Cast: Aramis Knight, Scoot McNairy, Jake T. Austin, Annalise Basso, Demian Bichir, Gabriel Chavarria

Plot: Ted Kord (Scoot McNairy) aka the Blue Beetle is aboard a spaceship of the Reach, a race of cybernetic insectoid extraterrestrials. He sabotages the alien spacecraft, fleeing in an escape pod just before it explodes. Pieces of the ship scatter throughout space, including a piece of technology called the Blue Scarab, which falls all the way down to Earth.

In El Paso, Texas, teenager Jaime Reyes (Aramis Knight) is in a junkyard with his friends Paco (Jake T. Austin) and Brenda (Annalise Basso). Jaime is looking for parts for a car he is restoring. While rooting through destroyed cars, Jaime finds the Blue Scarab. Thinking it's a gem of some kind, he pockets it, intending to give it to Brenda to express his feelings for her. When he gets home, Jaime sets the Blue Scarab on his desk. While he sleeps, the Scarab comes alive and grafts itself to Jaime's spine. Jaime screams in pain and his father Alberto (Demian Bichir) enters his bedroom to see what's wrong. Jaime doesn't tell his father about the Scarab, instead saying he had a nightmare.

Jaime doesn't tell anyone about the Scarab attached to his spine. He tries searching the junkyard for clues, but comes up empty. One day, Jaime and Paco are approached by Esteban (Gabriel Chavarria), leader of a local gang called The Posse. He asks them why they haven't tried to join the gang. They tell him they simply aren't interested. He threatens to beat them up if they don't join. Just then, the Blue Scarab kicks in and covers Jaime in a high-tech suit of armor. The Scarab armor shoots a blue energy beam at Esteban, nearly killing him. The Scarab then retracts back into Jaime's spine, causing him great pain.

Ted Kord's computers detect Reach energy being emitted in El Paso and decides to head there to investigate. He visits Esteban in the hospital claiming to be an investigator for the Center for Disease Control. He tells Esteban that he needs the names of the people he was around in order to cure Esteban of a top secret life threatening disease. Esteban falls for Kord's ruse and tells him Jaime and Paco were there.

Ted Kord finds Jaime and detects the Reach energy coming from him. Ted tells him that he knows he is in possession of alien technology and tells him about the Reach and that they intend to invade Earth. Ted tells Jaime that if he could find him, the Reach will be looking as well and that he must learn to control the Scarab or it will control him.

With Ted's help, Jaime slowly learns to control the Scarab.  One day while Jaime is in school, a group of Reach soliders attack his high school looking for him. They sense trace amounts of the Scarab's energy on Brenda and capture her. With help from Ted, Jaime infiltrates a Reach ship to rescue Brenda. Jaime struggles to control the Scarab on the ship due to his close proximity to the Reach Hive Mind. Ted works at destroying the ship while Jaime fights the Reach to get to Brenda.

Ted changes the ship trajectory and sends it on a course to crash into the Gulf of Mexico. At the last second before it crashes, Ted, Jaime and Brenda escape the ship. On the shores of the Gulf, while watching the burning Reach ship sink into the ocean, Jaime finally tells Brenda how he feels about her and they kiss. Ted comments that is an intimate moment that he doesn't need to be present for. He tells them he'll be back in a while and for Jaime not to do anything he wouldn't do.