Now this is mostly mocked for how extremely dumb and silly the beekeeper metaphor and dialogue are, and Jason Statham being a literal beekeeper while actually being part of a off-the-records organization of super capable soldiers or fighters, creating order where the law fails and answering to no-one. He becomes active violently taking down scam callcenters, after an old woman he cherished took her own life after losing (charity) money to one of those scams.
The story is obviously soaked in secret organization and conspiracy thinking, and while some of it is just part of the fun or even "positive" (there is the Beekeeper, after all), it becomes increasingly serious as it spins a "Deep State" narrative, connected to the easy hook of outrage against the scam callcenters. Sentences about those scammers taking people's hard-earned money appear increasingly context-less, creating similarities to slogans against taxation. The Beekeeper himself is a libertarian vigilante power fantasy easily beating up and brutally murdering FBI and Seal Team members (actually more so than any callcenter member - an odd choice), and guess what - all that scam money ultimately it all links up to money for the president. Yep, that's right. Can you take a clue?
Why do I give this 3 stars and not 1 (as I have no hesitation to, when I want)? That is because it's crappy, as expected and probably on some level wanted. I personally don't take it seriously anyway, although I find the narrative choices to be condemned and potentially having a problematic effect on a number of brains, no matter how subtle. And of course 3 out of 10 is very bad already. But mainly it also plays and is shot in a way that's relatively competent for this kind of movie and not completely boring.
The story is obviously soaked in secret organization and conspiracy thinking, and while some of it is just part of the fun or even "positive" (there is the Beekeeper, after all), it becomes increasingly serious as it spins a "Deep State" narrative, connected to the easy hook of outrage against the scam callcenters. Sentences about those scammers taking people's hard-earned money appear increasingly context-less, creating similarities to slogans against taxation. The Beekeeper himself is a libertarian vigilante power fantasy easily beating up and brutally murdering FBI and Seal Team members (actually more so than any callcenter member - an odd choice), and guess what - all that scam money ultimately it all links up to money for the president. Yep, that's right. Can you take a clue?
Why do I give this 3 stars and not 1 (as I have no hesitation to, when I want)? That is because it's crappy, as expected and probably on some level wanted. I personally don't take it seriously anyway, although I find the narrative choices to be condemned and potentially having a problematic effect on a number of brains, no matter how subtle. And of course 3 out of 10 is very bad already. But mainly it also plays and is shot in a way that's relatively competent for this kind of movie and not completely boring.