Society; the beekeeping Beekeeper's perspective.
Holy cats!! What did I just watch?
Friendlyfriend.net? Lol. Make sure you don’t click that link by the way. Not that anything could happen to you though, but... You never know. Besides, I wouldn’t want you to become a "Mrs. Parker" as a result of my review—if you have watched the movie you should understand.
Before we continue, I want to inform you that this review will be from a personal perspective, not for any particular reason but because the film been burst my brains. Omo! (The words in italics are a Nigerian thing. We just happen to be emotional people; the reason you find us wildly celebrating our AFCON win against South Africa, so no vex for me.)
The Beekeeper? Fantastico.
As opposed to what other people might think, the movie, The Beekeeper, actually began when Jason Statham (playing the role of Mr. Clay) made the statement, “No one has ever taken care of me before." In that moment he recognized the value of Mrs. Parker; a commoner and his neighbor, to himself. A recognition that carried a lot of significance later in the movie. It pays to be kind, I tell you. And yes, Jason Startham was in the movie. In fact, he was the main character (why you think say the film sweet before?) Also were Emmy Raver-Lampman, Bobby Naderi, Josh Hutcherson, Jeremy Irons, Jemma Redgrave, Taylor James, Michael Epp, and a bunch of other good actors.
A Miramx, Cedar Park, and Punch Palace Productions production, written by David Ayer, co-produced by Anthony M. Scott, with executive producers Andrew Golov, Thom Zadra, and Mark Birmingham, costume design by Kelli Jones, movie score composed by David Sardy and Jared Michael Fry, and Gabriel Beristain as its director of photography, the movie The Beekeeper is a movie that is based on society.
“The honey bee has always had a special relationship with humanity. A sacred relationship. Why? No bees, no agriculture. No agriculture, no civilization. Our nation is not unlike a beehive, with its complex system of workers, caretakers, and even royalty. If any of the beehive’s complex mechanisms are compromised, the hive collapses. Someone long ago decided that a mechanism was needed to keep our nation safe—a mechanism outside the chain of command, outside the system. With Its one mission to keep the system safe. Beekeepers…”
”Dude, bees are interesting little shits; did you know that? Listen, 'some bees are queen slayers who would rise up and kill their queen if she failed to produce the right male offspring.”
The above two paragraphs were, in essence, what The Beekeeper tries to show viewers. The movie sheds light on the concept of the human society, in comparison with that of a bee colony, drawing patterns and similarities between both societies, especially in terms of structure, balance, and order. A human society today consists of the masses, and the government. We find that a society; be it democratic or not, is essentially divided into two classes, the rulers, and the ruled. Of course within the ruled lies different classes of people: the rich, poor, students, young and old, etc., all of which can be classified as the working population of the society, or the workers. As by their actions and daily activities; which includes living, commerce, and so on, they build the society.
Then is the class called the rulers, which in a democratic society are elected. This class consists of a section of the working population that has been chosen to lead. Then again there is a third class; somewhat unrecognized yet there, known as the rulers' offsprings. This class is where children of rulers belong, and oftentimes, it is from this class that a new ruler is chosen. In similitude is a bee colony.
A bee colony consists of three types of bees: queens, workers, and drones. The queen, who appears to be the most important member of the hive, is responsible for laying the eggs that make up the hive. She is the biggest of them all, and she alone has the ability to mate and lay fertilized eggs. From her eggs come succeeding queens, then drones (which are male bees whose functions are to fertilize a young queen bee, keeping the colony populated and going), and lastly, the workers. As their name implies, workers are the commoner bees (just like the common masses), whose duties are to do all the work in the colony. They are the smallest and most numerous, and they are all female bees with an inability to mate. However, this type of bee is, surprisingly, the most important of them all. For aside from primarily carrying out all the tasks in their society, their duty extends to “babysitting” the queen, raising the new baby bees whenever the queen's eggs hatch, and driving out drones from the hive—an important duty that maintains order in the colony.
Again, among these workers are queen slayers. Not that they are any special breed, but they are workers who take it upon themselves to slay queens that produce sterile drones —or should I say the wrong male offspring, due to the effects these drones would have on the colony. In all of this, a beekeeper; who is a person who maintains the hive and keeps the bees, makes certain to note the whole process, and marks the new queen when the old one is disposed of. Such was the role of Jason Statham, "the beekeeper Beekeeper;” as director Janet Harward correctly put it. Lol
The Beekeeper is about a man who, by virtue of his former profession as a Beekeeper; a classified intelligent unit operative meant to maintain and keep the nation safe, and his new occupation as a beekeeper; a keeper of bees, comes to have a balanced understanding of society, justice, and societal justice—a failed system in which evil doers could walk away innocent even after perpetrating great evil, all because they have lawyers to exploit legal loopholes, or because they belong to the ruling class. It shows a man with quite an interesting sense of justice, seeing only good and bad. A man who believed in rightness and implemented rightness within his own means.
Of course, while some people might term the movie a personal vendetta, or argue Mr. Clay implementing justice himself; hence taking laws into his own arms, as unlawful, I think the movie was trying to portray Mr. Clay as someone who was acting from his understanding of the concepts of society and its failed justice system. As a beekeeping Beekeeper, he knew that drones like Derek were harmful to the hive (the society) and needed to be brought to justice. Although it took Derek destroying Mrs. Parker for Mr. Clay to step in, it goes to buttress the popular saying, "every day for the thief, one day for the owner,” even though in this case, it happened to be “one day for the person who would avenge the owner.” Beekeeping Beekeeper Clay saw that Derek’s actions were not just against a worker whom he cared for, but against hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other good workers (common citizens), and was destroying the order that was to be maintained within the society. He also knew that, by virtue of Derek being a drone (literally), he was quite “untouchable” in the justice system of the society. Hence, he became a queen slayer, even though he was the beekeeper. Or did he?
With good cinematography, a setting perfect for the subtleness of the movie’s plot, and a surreal sound track that keeps you on your toes anticipating the next scene, The Beekeeper blends a somewhat tragic/failed love tale in its storyline—personal opinion about the nature of the blended love story though; what with Wallace pulling strings for a woman who “still thinks of him sometimes.” The twist of the movie came at the very end of the movie, right when Mr. Clay was to slay the queen. OMG, I never expected what he did there. Magnificent, it was.
Regarding movie stunts, perfecto! Although some were exaggerated, nevertheless, given that it was Jason Statham—the Jason Statham—who performed these stunts, it is quite understandable; and even logical if you ask me. With a duration of 1 hour and 45 minutes, I assuredly proclaim to you that it is worth your time and money. I personally rate the movie 8.7/10. I tell you it is one of those movies, which sadly are few, that I can pay to watch at a cinema three times. Perhaps you are yet to watch this beauty due to cold feet or doubts about whether it is worth the hype. I stand tall and tell you this: IT IS WORTH EVERY HYPE! Do not let this weekend pass you by without watching it. Perhaps we all need Beekeepers in our society.
