The Fight Scenes in BLUE BEETLE Were Inspired By THE RAID and INJUSTICE 2
The director of DC’s Blue Beetle movie, Angel Manuel Soto, recently talked about the fight scenes in the movie and explained that they were inspired by The Raid action movie and the Injustice 2 video game. When it comes to the weapons in the game, the director cited The Fifth Element and Final Fantasy VII. During an interview with Discussing Film, Soto said:
"I wanted the action and violence to be a little more visceral. Although I do love the fantastic and magical side of things, this is the beginning of Jaime Reye's heroic journey and he doesn't know everything he can do yet. So, one of the things we wanted was for this movie to feature a little bit more hand-to-hand combat. We used a lot of references like The Raid movies and Gangs of London for the hand-to-hand combat, which Jon Valera, our stunt coordinator, drives very well. We managed to make something that represented that kind of flesh-to-flesh intimacy that can exist in violence. But, at the same time, we play with different alternatives that are fantastic and the wish-fulfillment of a young man. For example, a lot of the combos in Injustice 2, we used them as a reference during fights and with the manifestations of the weapons. Blue Beetle's blaster was even inspired by Mega Man!
"There's a scene where Jaime says, 'Khaji, show me something,' and he pulls out a gun that we chose to look like the ZF-1 gun from The Fifth Element. Then we play with that again towards the end when Jaime goes 'Anything I want? Okay!' and he busts out Cloud's sword [from Final Fantasy VII] Why? Because we're gamers! We were asking ourselves, 'Wow, what would I want to create?' I always wanted to have a buster sword like they do in Final Fantasy. To be able to play with those nods, including some from Dragon Ball Z. Play with a lot of other references that I'm not going to spoil – it was super good fun. I felt like I was twelve again!"
The fight scenes in The Raid are pretty damn spectacular. Those are some of the best fight scenes in a movie ever. It’s hard to believe that they actually managed to deliver that kind of action, but I’ll be super impressed if they did! Regardless, the movie still looks like it’ll deliver some solid entertainment.
The story for the movie centers on Jaime Reyes, the alter ego of the Blue Beetle, a vigilante who has a scarab grafted onto his spine that gives him tremendous powers and the ability to emit blue energy. You get to see that transformation take place in the trailer, and it’s like family-friendly body horror. Here’s the synopsis:
Recent college grad Jaime Reyes returns home full of aspirations for his future, only to find that home is not quite as he left it. As he searches to find his purpose in the world, fate intervenes when Jaime unexpectedly finds himself in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology: the Scarab. When the Scarab suddenly chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, he is bestowed with an incredible suit of armor capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the Super Hero BLUE BEETLE.
Blue Beetle stars Xolo Maridueña (Cobra Kai) as Reyes; Bruna Marquezine as Penny, the female lead and love interest; Belissa Escobedo as Jamie’s younger sister, Milagros; as well as Harvey Guillén; and Susan Sarandon as the villain Victoria Kord.
The movie is set to be released only in theaters on August 18, 2023.