MOVIE REVIEW: Taken 3 (2015)

In early 2009, Taken became a sleeper hit in the United States. Directed by Pierre Morel, the film essentially reformed Liam Neeson's career from a dramatic actor to an action star almost instantaneously. Neeson himself stated that he didn't think it would be much of a hit at all, and would likely end up as a straight-to-video product in the United States (each of the three films have been produced in France). Audiences were very enthusiastic about this simple revenge story, although critics were a bit more lukewarm at the time. Naturally this kind of success would lead to a sequel in January of 2012, simply titled Taken 2 and directed by Olivier Megaton, with diminishing returns and a negative critical response. Still, the audiences showed up and, keeping in tradition with the release dates of the previous entries in the series, Taken 3 was released in January of 2015 to universal derision from critics, but still solid box office receipts. This is said to be the last installment in the revenge series, as the poster indicates "It Ends Here," and it's probably a good thing for that to be true.

Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is still a retired CIA agent who seems to be living a rather calm life by himself in his Los Angeles apartment. His daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) is now in college and living in an apartment with her boyfriend. She learns early on that she is pregnant and struggles to find a way to tell her father of this revelation. Meanwhile, Mills is visited often from his ex-wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen), who reveals her current marital problems to him with her new husband Stuart (Dougray Scott). This creates a tension between Mills and Stuart, as the latter doesn't like the idea of his wife spending time with her ex-husband. After promising not to see her anymore, he receives a text one day from Lenore that says she wishes to meet one morning. After returning to his apartment to get ready, Mills finds his ex-wife dead on his bed, with her throat slit, and then local police officers storm in to arrest him as if he has committed the murder. Of course, the audience is well aware that Mills had nothing to do with this and is just as puzzled as we are. So begins the chase for Mills to clear his name and try to find out who killed his ex-wife, all the while Inspector Frank Dotzler (Forest Whitaker) is on his trail to find and capture him.

I suppose the first thing to mention about Taken 3 is that it's a marginal step up from Taken 2, although that's not really saying a whole lot. Both films have interesting concepts, with the second installment showing the consequences for Mills' destructive actions in Taken coming back to haunt him, even though it still recycled the same formula from the first one (the only difference being the two parents getting kidnapped instead of their daughter). Here, however, the filmmakers have decided to break away from that formula and basically lifted the plot from 1993's The Fugitive, with Mills on the run while trying to clear his name and find out who has framed him for his wife's murder. It's somewhat refreshing not having to see Neeson's character save another kidnapped family member once again, but much like the second installment, it's the execution of the plot that bogs the film down. Whereas 2009's Taken was simple in its premise and storytelling, the writers here have decided to add several twists and turns in order to try and keep the audience engaged in a story that is rather derivative and predictable. The early scenes in the film of Mills as a retiree point to a story that would have likely been more engaging than the fugitive-on-the-run one that we get, which is never a good sign when you're making an action thriller such as this.

One of the film's biggest problems is apparent on a technical level: the editing. It's evident from the very first scene that this film is going to be choppy as all hell, quickly jumping from one moment to the next without any sense of rhythm. This was a problem in Taken 2 as well, but seems to have reached new heights here. Where the bad editing really stands out, however, is in the action sequences. There are foot chases, fist fights, car chases, and gun fights that are incoherently put together, resulting in befuddlement more than excitement. The camerawork is equally to blame, as the filmmakers seem to be trying to copy Paul Greengrass' shaky camera style that he employs in his films, most famously in The Bourne Ultimatum (and best utilized, in my opinion, in United 93). Here the effect is just headache-inducing (my eyes actually began to hurt watching parts of this film; I couldn't even imagine experiencing it in a theater) and doesn't give the viewer any sense of spatial coherence amidst all the chases and shootouts. It's just a lot of shaking the camera (often in close ups and quick zoom-outs) and choppily edited moments that are barely comprehensible to the human eye. These kinds of poorly done action sequences only reinforce the notion that a number of directors making action movies today have no idea how to film or edit these sequences, particularly after recent films such as The Raid: Redemption, John Wick, and Mad Max: Fury Road have all stood out as prime examples of how to shoot, choreograph and edit complex action into something coherent and exciting.

What is there really to say about the performances in a movie like this? Their serviceable, I guess. It's worth noting that Liam Neeson looks more engaged here than he did in Taken 2, although I think by this point he is even a bit burned out by all of these kidnappings, beatings, tortures, and flesh wounds he has to inflict or have inflicted on him. I'm not sure what it is with the Russians being villains once again in an action film, but here they are again. In case it wasn't obvious that they are the bad guys, they speak in heavy accents, want to get drunk after committing their murders and are covered in tattoos. The whole story with the Russian gangsters often creates some unnecessary subplots that provide more twists and turns into the narrative, and then another twist on top of what you think is the climax. All of this, of course, is meant to be engaging and keeping the viewer on the edge of their seat, but by this point in the series, it's hard to sustain much interest in what happens. The final moments of the film include a situation with Mills and his daughter that should really hit home on an emotional level, but since there is little interest in what's happening on screen, this conclusion falls flat before it abruptly ends so the credits can start rolling. All of this is without even mentioning the film's complete lack of logic, particularly in regards to Neeson's character. Not only does he wipe out the many antagonists in his way, but he survives falling down an elevator shaft in a car that blows up (I'm not kidding) as well as surviving another car explosion after being deliberately rolled off the side of a cliff. This is all played straight and accomplished without Mills acquiring a single scratch on his face.

I've listed all of these problems I had while watching Taken 3, and yet I didn't hate it. At 109 minutes it's too long (the first film was a brisk 93 minutes) and really begins to run out of steam when the plot begins to pile on the several twists. I wasn't necessarily interested in what was happening, but I wasn't bored. In fact, it's strangely watchable (as long as it's not giving you a headache) and is the kind of movie that will pass the time when there's nothing else to watch on television. As far as action movies go, it's just a very mediocre one and certainly nowhere near as good as the first installment. It's probably fair to say that the Taken films are the modern day equivalent to the Death Wish series, where Charles Bronson played a Korean War veteran who became a vigilante to get justice for the murder of his wife and rape of his daughter in New York City during the early 1970s. That film was similarly a big hit with audiences at the time (while also receiving strong criticism for its support of vigilantism) and went on to have four more sequels. For the audiences' sake, hopefully the Taken series actually does end here and Bryan Mills can finally retire for good.

Rating: 2/4