Beekeeper Review – Nonstop Vengeance

Beekeeper got a whopping final review of 4.5 stars within the first week of its release. After its initial release, January 12th, the film grossed over 31.1 Million worldwide surpassing Mean Girls, bound to keep that number growing.  It is directed by David Ayer who also directed Fury, Suicide Squad, Bright and End Of Watch just to name a few. Although Suicide Squad was a tad iffy, we can all agree that the other films were awesome.  And since he had good run with his films, we know that Beekeeper will also be a pretty dope movie with tons of action. 

This review will have spoilers for The Beekeeper, still in theaters.

Story – Fighting Against The Hive

We follow a man, supposedly a beekeeper (both metaphorically and physically), who was being taken care of a wonderful older woman. She had lent him her barn to stay in, get rid of her bees and maintain her property in sorts. But, after we follow her through a phone call to get rid of a so-called virus, we can understand what it is meant by ‘fighting against the hive’. 

This film was wonderfully intriguing, and thoroughly relatable. Not the fighting part, but the understanding of it. We find out that the woman who has been taking care of the main character, Adam Clay, had been scammed of not just some of her money, but all of her money. She had more than $2mill. to her name and lost all of it to a phone call that she thought could help rid of the “virus” on her computer. Only to find out that it was all just a scam. And because of it, she takes her own life.

Behind The Term Beekeeper

After Adam finds this out, he reveals to the audience that he’s not just a “beekeeper.” He may take care of bees, but he has an intensive knowledge of fighting. It was as if he was in the secret service. The entire movie was action packed, with him climbing up the ladder. The characters use many references to actual beekeeping to help understand his logic. Then we find out later that they are in a program that the government themselves don’t like to acknowledge. They are so well hidden, and so good, that the official government services have nothing on this program and their people. 

The Beekeeper program is a separate program that seems to act like its own secret service. Although retired, Adam Clay fights to get to the one responsible for stealing the innocent and hurting the weak. 

Characters And Performances – Behind The People

I really enjoyed the various characters in this film. Adam Clay himself was awesome, action packed and well versed in his fighting. Jason Stathom always does a marvelous job at playing action-packed characters. That is his forte, and like always, he did amazing. You can really see in Clay how much he cares for the people around him, especially the weak and innocent. The dialogue for Clay was so epic, and his one liners were on point with the story.

Jason Stathom at red carpet for Beekeeper

Josh Hutcherson played the bad boy, CEO, entitled son of a president very well. He was in the place to take care of his mothers company and he did whatever he wanted because of how much money he made for her. Hutcherson played him well enough for us to dislike him. At least, me. I did not like his character. Not in the sense that he was created poorly, but because he was played so well. Hutcherson acted him out so well to the point it made the audience hate him. Derek Danforth made branches of his mothers company to steal the poor’s financial stability they worked so hard to get.

Other Supporting Characters

The other supporting characters felt relatable, especially the FBI agents. Not only were they trying to follow Adam Clay, but they were trying to avenge the woman as well. For one, one of the FBI agents is the victims daughter. Her name is Verona Parker and she is on the case for whoever is responsible for destroying the scammer facilities. Emmy Raver-Lampman, the actress who plays her, plays a very realistic individual whom found out her mother had committed suicide.

Lampman portrayed Verona amazingly. Lampman knew what she was doing. Parker was executed as a strong woman, someone who is hardheaded to get justice for her mothers life as well as bring justice to Clay by bringing him in. Although what he is doing is for vengeance, Parker has to continue to justify the law because of her line of work.

All of these characters bring a wonderful light to the film of action.

Josh and Emmy playing Derek Danforth and Verona Parker

Cinematography And Sound – Wonderfully Placed

The cinematography of this film was phenomenal. Gabriel Beristain perfectly swept his way to create an impactful and epic film. The way the movie followed the characters in various plot lines makes it all connect together. The scenes move together like a wave. Flowing between Clays journey to the top of the metaphorical food chain, the fear and irritation of Danforth, and the determination of Parker only meshed the story further. The camera sweeps from various scenes between the different characters to really impact the premise.

The scenes with Clay was so, in my words, amazing. The sound effects really push the emotions of suspense into your chest. The soundtrack or this film felt epic, helping increase the intensity of each scene Clay is in. Dave Sardy and Jared Micheal Fry both work hard to impact the audience with neat picked instruments. They work together to create a masterpiece of a soundtrack to engage the audience to the story.

Clay getting ready to burn the first scammer building

Editing And Pacing- Executed Perfectly

Editing and pacing both flow with cinematography. They have to utilize one to impact the other, and thats what the editing process did. They edit the scenes to be more suspenseful with its music placement, scene distribution, and dialogue placement. I really enjoyed the flipping perspectives of all three characters, especially the scenes with the FBI arriving to the second scammer building. In that scene, the camera pans around the entire group as they try to make a plan to go in as they were just shoved out by the secret service. As the camera pans around, they were alone but then Clay suddenly appears and began ordering them what to do. But, because he wasn’t FBI and an apparent civilian, they try to remove him but he ends up fighting them all. The editing in this scene felt so awesome, soon after we follow him from the top camera as he uses the back way into the building.

The pacing of the movie itself felt nice. We immediately get into the plot, the action and the redemption arc. I really enjoy action movies, so when I saw him initiate the burning of the first scammer building, I fell in love with it. The entire movie was a full 2 hours of action to redeem the people they hurt, stole and took advantage of.

Final Thoughts

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this action packed film starring Jason Stathom. He never ceases to fail his action roles, especially ones that involve him being a secret service from an organization. Beekeeper was so thrilling that I could honestly see something like this happening in real life.