By: Robert Murphy
I was half expecting this movie to be about Liam Neeson getting his dog kidnapped or some such nonsense. This isn't the case though, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) isn't off in Paris or Turkey, he is going about his everyday life at home and still trying his best to be a good dad to his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), picking that perfect birthday gift for her still eludes him. His ex wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen), is still very much in the picture as well but things with her rich husband, Stuart (Dougray Scott), are about to come to an end. That not so innocent flirting between Bryan and Lenore that happened in Taken 2 is more painfully obvious this time around and just when you think Bryan will get the happy ending he deserves, Lenore ends up dead in his apartment. Just out the door for a moment to fetch them some nice bagels, Bryan returns home to find his ex wife's throat slashed and the police conveniently busting down his door. Now, Bryan is the bad guy and ends up on the run and out to prove his innocent, maybe kill the jerks that ruined the chance he had to reunite his family too.
Rather than sticking around to defend himself to the police, Bryan leads them on a merry chase which he promptly escapes from in order to go dark and get some old spy tools to help him solve his ex wife's murder all on his own. Doesn't really seem like the straight laced Byran Mills thing to do but at least this time he isn't killing everyone, these people are just cops trying to do their jobs. Enter a new character, LAPD Inspector Franck Dotzler (Forest Whitake) who is a bit of a superstitious man and one who is always picking up some sort of vibe from bad situations. This leads him to be the first real "foe" to Bryan Mills that we've seen in all three of the Taken films, not in a fighting skills sense but in being able to keep up with Bryan's trail as he looks for clues and tries to keep his daughter safe from whoever is after them. Dotzler is probably one of the more enjoyable characters in the film, his quirks are never really explained such as the rubber band on his arm or the chess pieces he seems to carry around but his attempts to catch Bryan are a heck of a lot better than what we've seen before. Bryan even has the advantages of having all his spy gear and tools but he is no spring chicken anymore, I chuckled at one scene where he had Kim give him some chocolate because of low blood sugar.
There were however moments throughout Taken 3 that should have been more powerful that just weren't. A moment arises where Bryan and Dotzler speak on the phone and Bryan's "Good luck" response was clearly meant as a throw back to the first Taken but the scene shuffled along far too quickly and left no impact. That's pretty much how you can describe most of the events for the movie, trumped up action scenes and not one but two final showdown scenes, one at a swanky rich apartment suite and the other at an airport runway. Many of the action or suspenseful moments lose all their impact with the massive amount of cuts between what's happening and what Bryan is doing. The freeway scene is a perfect example of this, Bryan drives down the wrong side of the road with a commandeered police cruiser and causes untold damage and an out of control semi crushes a few vehicles. Stepping over the done to death notion behind this scene, it is not very powerful with the number of times the action cuts to something different and really just makes Taken 3 look like a cliche action flick, his final line to the police officer he releases doesn't help this either.
Other lack luster aspects to the story come in form of Kim's little secret and the suddenly young Stuart who doesn't look to trusting. Yes, you'll see this one coming a mile away as Stuart's suspicious actions lead you to believe something is amiss but honestly by this film I would have though that he'd have been out of the picture and Bryan, Lenore and Kim would be living blissfully. Of course this is never the case in an action type film and if it is, it quickly gets torn down around you, this being a plot line I probably would have preferred more than the one I got. The plot line with Kim is pretty poor, the one nice thing that is revealed is that she is somewhat like her dad with his routines but other than that things take a step backwards. Bryan still treats her like a kid and after the swim suit scene and Grand Theft Auto style exploits she showed in Taken 2 you'd he would take the hint or at least the director would.
Usually, a third movie in a franchise proves to be the one that brings it all back for me, the charm of the first Taken being reignited in my mind but Taken 3 doesn't do that. Really, the title shouldn't even be Taken 3 for a number of reason, the obvious joke one being that no one gets "taken" in the whole thing but there's also the fact that this movie has been done before and done far better at that. Liam Neeson is always a delight to watch kick some tale and I do enjoy anything with Forest Whitaker but they can only take my enjoyment so far and it's definitely not enough to save Taken 3.
Rather than sticking around to defend himself to the police, Bryan leads them on a merry chase which he promptly escapes from in order to go dark and get some old spy tools to help him solve his ex wife's murder all on his own. Doesn't really seem like the straight laced Byran Mills thing to do but at least this time he isn't killing everyone, these people are just cops trying to do their jobs. Enter a new character, LAPD Inspector Franck Dotzler (Forest Whitake) who is a bit of a superstitious man and one who is always picking up some sort of vibe from bad situations. This leads him to be the first real "foe" to Bryan Mills that we've seen in all three of the Taken films, not in a fighting skills sense but in being able to keep up with Bryan's trail as he looks for clues and tries to keep his daughter safe from whoever is after them. Dotzler is probably one of the more enjoyable characters in the film, his quirks are never really explained such as the rubber band on his arm or the chess pieces he seems to carry around but his attempts to catch Bryan are a heck of a lot better than what we've seen before. Bryan even has the advantages of having all his spy gear and tools but he is no spring chicken anymore, I chuckled at one scene where he had Kim give him some chocolate because of low blood sugar.
There were however moments throughout Taken 3 that should have been more powerful that just weren't. A moment arises where Bryan and Dotzler speak on the phone and Bryan's "Good luck" response was clearly meant as a throw back to the first Taken but the scene shuffled along far too quickly and left no impact. That's pretty much how you can describe most of the events for the movie, trumped up action scenes and not one but two final showdown scenes, one at a swanky rich apartment suite and the other at an airport runway. Many of the action or suspenseful moments lose all their impact with the massive amount of cuts between what's happening and what Bryan is doing. The freeway scene is a perfect example of this, Bryan drives down the wrong side of the road with a commandeered police cruiser and causes untold damage and an out of control semi crushes a few vehicles. Stepping over the done to death notion behind this scene, it is not very powerful with the number of times the action cuts to something different and really just makes Taken 3 look like a cliche action flick, his final line to the police officer he releases doesn't help this either.
Other lack luster aspects to the story come in form of Kim's little secret and the suddenly young Stuart who doesn't look to trusting. Yes, you'll see this one coming a mile away as Stuart's suspicious actions lead you to believe something is amiss but honestly by this film I would have though that he'd have been out of the picture and Bryan, Lenore and Kim would be living blissfully. Of course this is never the case in an action type film and if it is, it quickly gets torn down around you, this being a plot line I probably would have preferred more than the one I got. The plot line with Kim is pretty poor, the one nice thing that is revealed is that she is somewhat like her dad with his routines but other than that things take a step backwards. Bryan still treats her like a kid and after the swim suit scene and Grand Theft Auto style exploits she showed in Taken 2 you'd he would take the hint or at least the director would.
Usually, a third movie in a franchise proves to be the one that brings it all back for me, the charm of the first Taken being reignited in my mind but Taken 3 doesn't do that. Really, the title shouldn't even be Taken 3 for a number of reason, the obvious joke one being that no one gets "taken" in the whole thing but there's also the fact that this movie has been done before and done far better at that. Liam Neeson is always a delight to watch kick some tale and I do enjoy anything with Forest Whitaker but they can only take my enjoyment so far and it's definitely not enough to save Taken 3.
Good:
- Forest Whitaker as the quirky inspector
- Liam Neeson still kicking some tale
Bad:
- Puffed up action sequences
- Lack luster story and movie direction
- Pretty sure this movie has been done before i.e. The Fugitive, maybe go rent that instead
Scully Rating: 4.0 out of 10
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