Review of Taken 3 (2014) by Dan E — 14 Mar 2015

Before Liam Neeson signed on to Tak3n (more properly titled Taken 3) he insisted that in this sequel no one should be "taken". Only now does it feel like that would have been a more interesting story to follow a third time around, rather than this convoluted and headache inducing rip off of The Fugitive.

Directed by Olivier Megaton (Columbiana, Taken 2), Taken 3 follows ex CIA operative Brian Mills through the city of Los Angeles as he's hunted by the local police, the FBI, and a handful of Russian baddies that have killed his ex-wife and framed him for her murder. Sounds fun, right? It's not. At least not while Megaton is in control of this mess. The movie starts in such a manic rush that we might never have any actual clue what's exactly's going on. And it only gets worse from there.

Other than Mills' innocence, there is nothing particularly at stake in this feature this time around. His daughter is in no particular peril and certainly not his ex wife. No one in particular is being threatened at all, in fact. All that's really at stake is Mills facing potential jail time for a clearly staged murder. And it's very clear that everything Mills does throughout the movie only further complicates the police investigation that (given all the evidence at the scene of the crime) almost assuredly would have found him innocent anyway.

However as the movie goes on, Mills assaults multiple officers, causes damage in the millions to public property,steals/vandalizes police property, and causes the probable deaths of multiple pedestrians all in the name of him trying to prove his innocence. But these are just a few of the charges that -could- be legally held against him anyway; regardless of whether or not his murder charge is dropped! At the rate this movie goes, Neeson's character only seems to get in the way of things rather than being the only one who can actually save the day (a much different formula from both Taken and Taken 2).

Add insult to injury, Mills' particular set of skills are almost completely absent here as he mostly runs from police, somewhat kicks some ass, runs from police some more, explodes and dies in a few fiery car wrecks, respawns somewhere safe, taunts Detective Forest Whitaker about his particular set of skills, steals some cars, and somewhat kicks some more ass.

What we always want in a Taken movie is for Neeson's character to act as smart as he sounds. And this time around he just seems angry and confused; as if he were a senile old man who had just escaped his nursing home. In addition to that, there's no tension suspense or wit to anything that happens in the 109 minutes we're thrashed around as if we were riding shotgun when Mills decides to crash his car 20 stories down an elevator shaft! (That happens at one point in this movie. How does he not die? Like many other things; the movie doesn't care enough to explain.).

One thing that is still most certainly clear in this movie, however, is that Neeson still breaths badass. Much unlike Bruce Willis in the most recent Die Hard movie; Neeson certainly has a few moments of fun white-knuckle action (as he always does in movies of this kind). But for the most part, we're blinded by the excessive, choppy and incoherent editing that Olivier Megaton has shamelessly made his name know for.

As a mess from start to finish, it's almost sad to see Taken fall so hard from guilty-pleasure greatness. Taken has always been regarded as guilty pleasure; a flawed but fun film in the very least. You could say you enjoy this movie as a guilty pleasure as well, but could you also say in absolute honestly you have a single clue what's going on every time an action scene kicks in shaky-cam mode? Be honest.

All in all, Taken 3 only proves that Taken 2 could have been a lot worse than it already was. And that's saying a lot. Better luck next time in T4ken (Run All Night).