With the release of Blue Beetle upon us, DC has staked an underdog film with a theatrical release despite originally being destined for straight-to-streaming. However, the film is arguably 25 years behind, bringing a story of a young man who encounters a super suit to life on the big screen.
That is due to 1998’s cringe-worthy cult-classic Star Kid having a very similar premise. Like Blue Beetle, the film focuses on a kid who is unexpectedly endowed with superpowers thanks to a special suit that also challenges the main character’s autonomy in the process. In fact, the borderline body-horror elements we’ve seen in the Blue Beetle trailer roughly translate to an equivalent focus on gross-out humor that hasn’t aged too well in Star Kid. Looking at the DVD cover, which as a kid, was my glimpse into the film before renting it from a video store, it seems to promise a rollicking superhero adventure.
However, what actually unfolds throughout the film is a strange amalgamation of terrifying imagery, stomach-churning moments, and a sneak peek at the psyche of a child sociopath. You see, rather than use his new Cyborsuit for good, the 12-year-old protagonist portrayed by Jurassic Park star Joseph Mazzello chooses to terrorize his school bully in a wildly disproportionate way compared to the original offense, creepily stalk his crush from behind the bushes using the AI’s face recognition system at a crowded fair, and then wreaking havoc at the fair and his own home.
These hilariously tonally off-kilter scenes are peppered alongside some scenarios of the boy learning his new powers that are supposed to make you laugh but will more likely make you cringe. For instance, while the child is inside the alien suit, the inside-out version of the alien tech’s face is who he interacts with, which is nightmare-inducing. If that weren’t enough, there is a messed up scene where the Cyborsuit pre-digests a hamburger for his host, presenting him with a turd-like pellet devoid of unnecessary additives. A drawn-out joke in the film also revolves around the kid being unable to pee while in the suit.
Only in the very last part of the film, when an enemy alien arrives, the kid finally must use his superpowered suit, which includes incredible strength and jumping abilities, to defeat a threat that could end the world. In the end, the movie is extremely entertaining, but probably not in the way it was intended. As such, it remains a cult classic to this day for good reason.
However, that is not to say Star Kid lacks any value. Despite being a box office flop when it was released back in 1998 and an unsurprisingly “Rotten” critical score on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie did boast some pretty impressive effects and costumes for its time, such as the animatronic work in the Cyborsuit’s face that is reminiscent of the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film. The movie is competently acted and directed by Manny Coto, but it is simply the approach to its writing and humor that doesn’t seem to hold up as well. Even still, the film did have a high-profile defender in critic Roger Ebert, who said the movie “has a sweet heart and a lot of sly wit” in his 3-out-of-4-star review.
Blue Beetle looks like it is faring much better with critics so far if its impressively high Rotten Tomatoes score in the 80s is any indication. Hopefully, that means the film will hit all the right notes that Star Kid tried and failed to capture more than two decades earlier. Two or three scenes of the Cyborsuit-enhanced child rescuing kittens from trees or saving old ladies from burning buildings is all that Star Kid really needed to fully shine, after all.
Luckily, we can all enjoy the fully realized super suit fantasy tale found in Blue Beetle as it arrives in theaters on Aug. 18.