Review of Taken 3 (2014) by Mark V — 20 May 2015

Maybe it's just the change of formula, though it's still a ripoff of The Fugitive, but this, to me, is a vastly superior film to its predecessor. Perhaps vastly superior is overstating the point.

It is a better sequel than the second film was, that's for damn sure. The reviews for this one were actually worse than the second one, but I still stand by that. It's a better movie than Taken 2.

That's not saying much really since the film, as mentioned, substitute its 'tried and true' formula for a ripoff of another TV series/movie. Granted, I was actually someone interested in how this film would play out, but it's not like I thought any of it was any good.

I think the change in formula comes more out of necessity rather than of an inspired choice because you have a great story to tell. It's sort of become a joke by now how idiots keep kidnapping people close to Neeson's character and how that's a huge mistake.

So this one, in order to become a parody of itself, even when it could be argued that the second one was, stuff was changed in order to make it so that Bryan Mills is on the run. The film starts out horribly in the editing department.

So there's this chase scene after Bryan is discovered, by the cops, near his ex-wife's corpse, looking guiltier than a motherfucker. The cops go to arrest Bryan who, seemingly, has given himself up.

He proceeds to kick the cops' asses and go on the run. There's this 5-10 second period, during this chase scene, where there are, literally not joking, like 10 different jump cuts and camera angles.

It's absolutely ridiculous and fucking annoying to watch. Shortly thereafter there's a scene where Bryan is trying to climb over a fence and each step up the fence is a different jump cut. Seriously.

It'd be acceptable if it was during a long action sequence, but both of these examples cover a period of, tops, 10 seconds. It's only this ridiculously annoying during the two examples I just outlined, but it's not like they don't keep using this same editing techniques for every action scene in the film.

So, yes, the editing really fucking sucked. And, really, as much as the choreography itself is very important, the editing in action films is absolutely the most important aspect of any action film. I guess you could say editing is the most important part of any film, but when there's a lot of stuff going on, making sense of it all is absolutely essential and that's where the editing plays its very important role.

I'm not gonna bring up the movie I always bring up when I review substandard action films, but I'm gonna say that the same thing applies here. Talk about a forgettable and poorly-put together action sequences.

Conceptually, I'm sure these looked great. Execution is a completely different monster, of course. I don't know, it just didn't work for me. Not to mention that Bryan is trying to prove his innocence of his wife's murder and he does this by causing a ridiculous amount destruction during the car chase in the highway.

I'm fairly certain many people died in this scene. A giant freight container is detached from the truck carrying and it crushes several cars on its way to stopping. Hell of a way to prove your innocence Bryan, killing innocent people.

You're not supposed to think about that, it's really just a set piece, but considering what the film is about, it makes it even more silly. The story is what you would expect. Betrayals, set-ups, lots and lots of plot holes.

At the very least, in spite of all of this, the film had my attention from beginning to end. It's honestly not as bad as this review made it out to be. It's no good, at all, but it was better than it had any right to be.

I'd say this is, really, a below average film with a lot of faults. This series has been dead since the first sequel, so this is like the final nail in the coffin, hopefully. I wouldn't recommend it unless you can somehow get it for free from Redbox or a friend lends you the DVD.

There's no reason anyone should have to pay for this.