How did I find The Beekeeper?
I’ve always liked watching trailers before movies while in the theater. I feel like it really adds to the experience of going to the theater. So one day while I was with my best friend and her boyfriend waiting to watch the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie in October of 2023, I saw the trailer for The Beekeeper. It instantly pulled me in with its use of the song, Head Like a Hole by Nine Inch Nails. I had been listening to that song and Nine Inch Nails for a while before that, so hearing one of my favorites from them automatically made me interested in the film being teased. I also just liked the idea that was being sold to me in the trailer, which was an action movie. I’m a fan of action movies, with my favorites being the Kingsman series, although that’s a little more spy/mystery action rather than just bulldozing-fight everyone action. But I enjoy both of those sub-genres, so I was intrigued. Unfortunately, life got busy after that, so I wasn’t able to go see it in theatres. But luckily, I found out that in July that it would be coming to Amazon Prime Video, which I was subscribed to, and could watch it there.
Actually Watching the Film/Experiences
I actually never got around to watching the film after it was released online, so when I saw this assignment, I immediately knew what I wanted to choose. So i loaded up the app, and watched the whole movie over the course of three different days. And I liked it! There was a lot of good action in the film, a compelling story that wasn’t too confusing, and all the visuals were very nice.
Action
The action in this film was very good, although pretty run-of-the-mill action scenes. Jason Statham is known for doing these kinds of action movies, but I am not disappointed that it was the usual type of action. As long as a film is fun to me and keeps me interested, then I will like it. I’m not very picky. The fight scenes usually consisted of Jason Statham’s character, Adam Clay, fighting off multiple people at once. One thing that stood out to me was that most of the time, he didn’t use any weapons, and mainly just his used hands. This was interesting to me because going into this film, I had a preconceived notion that he would fight using weapons and guns. But I am happy that he didn’t really use them, as I am a bigger fan of hand-to-hand combat in films and it’s always refreshing to see when done well. One of my favorite combat scenes is actually from Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. This is a flashback scene where Shang Chi is with his father as a little boy and they’re in a restaurant, standing in front of a mirror wall. His father goes to confront the men that killed his wife, and you see the rest of the fight through the mirror. I guess what I’m getting at is that I love when action scenes are framed a certain way.
Color grading
The color in this movie was like that of a normal move for the most part. Occasionally, they’d have a little fun with the color, and make things black and yellow, to represent a bee. This happened only a few times during this movie, but I loved when it did. For example, instead of just having an explosion be normal red, orange, yellow and black, they made it just yellow and black. Or when panning out to show the city, they’d have mostly everything be dark and the lights be yellow. I liked that one especially because it made the city (at least in my opinion) represent a beehive, like how Clay kept calling it one. The film itself usually has a bit of a yellow/sepia filter over it, which stays in most scenes besides ones with other harsh competing colors (like when he’s in the server rooms).
Urgency
Throughout this film, there is a huge sense of urgency. Will Clay make it to his objective in time? Or will he fall to his attackers and everyone in is way? This really ramps up towards the end of the movie, when he’s traveling through this private beach house on a private island. His objective, or target, is actually the president’s son, who is currently hosting a party at this private beach house to make things seem normal to his mom, the president. As soon as Clay is discovered to be there, the sense of urgency really ramps up as he tries to secretly but quickly make his way to his target. As he gets closer, he faces more enemies, until he faces a man he’s faced before who puts up such a fight that Clay finally gets truly hurt; and is stabbed in the stomach. From this point on, there is the worry that he will pass out before he can do what he came to do.
Thrill
This may go along with action, but I loved the thrill from each fight that Clay got into. Each fight was harder than the last, and I loved watching the interesting ways he would take people down. One of my favorites was when he literally walked up to a group of armed SWAT members, who were there for him, interrupted them, and then fought them all. I loved how he tended to redirect or block blows towards him and fight without using weapons at all. A lot of times during this movie, he uses the weapons of his enemies against them, like using their gun while the enemy is holding it. I love how cool and even collected he is during most of these scenes, as it shows how experienced and confident he is.
