No one expected Taken to be as massive a hit as it was. The film, released in 2009, was a sleeper hit at the box office and reinvented Liam Neeson's career as an action star, leading to many films where Liam Neeson punches and kills quite a lot of people or things (see: Unbroken, The Grey, Non-Stop). In addition, due to Taken's massive success, two sequels were made: Taken 2, an unnecessary mess of a film that was essentially the same film as the first one, only this time he and his wife were taken, and this (supposedly) final installment, Taken 3 (or Tak3n, as it's stylized because....the kiddies will think it's cool).
In this latest installment, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is trying to live a normal life in L.A. with his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) and ex-wife Lenore (Famke Jenssen), who is having marital problems with her current husband Stuart (Douguray Scott). One morning, Mills returns home to find Lenore's throat slashed in his room and the cops descending on his location instantly. It seems that Mills has been set up to look like he murdered his wife. Now, he must go on the run, evading Inspector Frank Dotzler (Forest Whitaker) while trying to keep his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) safe from harm.
It still amazes me that this franchise is still going when it clearly should have ended at the first one. Taken 3 still doesn't improve much over the last film, as it is a brainless, idiotic action film that clearly show signs the franchise needs to end.
The only positive thing about the film is that Liam Neeson is still an absolute blast to watch. He still commands the screen whenever he shows up and, at the age of 62, he moves very well and handles all of his action scenes with ease.
However, the movie does not seem to realize this and instead decides to follow around Forest Whitaker and his merry band of misfits around for a solid 15-20 minutes. Let me rephrase that: Liam Neeson, the only reason to keep watching these movies, disappears for 15-20 minutes. When your biggest asset in your movie decides to disappear for 20 minutes and the movie decides to pad things for a while, there's a problem. While entertaining as he might be, even Neeson isn't enough to save this movie.
Forest Whitaker, while a good actor in his own right, has a character that is one of the most clichéd, predictable characters in the entire movie. Whitaker is a good actor, there is no doubt about that. But he's given so many cheesy lines like, "He couldn't find a tail if it was attached to a dog" and does every single beat you would expect this character to do. Following him and his fellow cops around feels rather pointless, as if the film was too short so they decided to pad it a lot more. Finally, Whitaker's logic behind why Neeson could be innocent might be one of the stupidest moments in film that I have seen this year.....and it's only January.
The rest of the supporting cast doesn't fare well either. Maggie Grace is literally given nothing to do other than worry about her dad and making sure he's OK, even though she's CLEARLY seen him take down bad guys with ease before, especially in the first movie when she was kidnapped. Dougray Scott, as Stuart, is also given very little to do until the final 25 minutes of the film.
On a technical level, the film fails miserably. The setting this time is in LA, not abroad in Europe. Due to being stateside, the film feels very cheaply made, as if everyone involved really didn't care at all about the making of the film. The script, written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, who wrote the last two installments, is incredibly boring, as not much happens within the film until the final 30 minutes. It's mainly people walking around, finding Mills, and talking on cell phones. There's no tension behind any of what happens.
Director Oliver Megaton (Taken 2) furiously cuts and edits the film during the action scenes, which are among some of the worst editing I have seen in films. The editing moves so quickly and furiously that you can barely tell exactly what is going on. Not only that, but the editing essentially tries to tell us that we are watching a quick paced, exciting thriller, when in reality, all it ends up is one dragged out and overlong action thriller.
Overall, Taken 3 really proves why it's time for this franchise to die. Liam Neeson and Forest Whitaker try their best to rise above the film, but they're bogged down by bad dialogue, an incredibly boring script, and bad guys so generic you're going to forget them as soon as you leave the theater. The film proves that just because lightning struck once, doesn't mean it was going to happen again.
GRADE: F
Have you seen Taken 3? If not, do you plan to? Sound off with your thoughts on the film in the comments below!
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