Review of Taken 3 (2014) by Brian S — 09 Jun 2015

After two trips to famous cities abroad (Paris and Istanbul), the third entry in the series known for its particular set of skills, 2015s (articulately tilted) Taken 3, sees the one-man battle against kidnapping homebound to US soil in Los Angeles.

If this geographic change seems like an indication that this will be a watered-down affair, fear not, because it is. The writing team for the first two, Robert Mark Kamen and Luc Besson, return but it is evident that plotting out an adventure for the third time edges on the cusp of self-parody.

Although Liam Neeson's (great) character of Bryan Mills was definitely that-a character-there was a sense of a grounded reality about him in the previous films. Action hero he may be, nothing stretched the limits of the character that had been established in the first film.

Not so much in Taken 3. Mills has been written to be the Swiss Army Knife of movie convenience. His detective abilities mimic Sherlock Holmes and his preparation for anything that may come his way borders on the supernatural.

It stripes the film of feeling remotely intense or high-pressure because the stakes have been lowered dramatically. Oliver Megaton returns to directing duties from the second film and his lack of focus T-bones any hope viewing Taken 3, totaling the product as if he were driving full speed.

Taken 3, a film where they say "snatched" instead of the moneymaker title-again, maybe self-parody-heralds "It Ends Here" proudly on the poster. For the sake of a series that started so strongly, let's hope that's the case.