Taken 3 Review

The Taken films are, in my opinion, essentially visual showcases of why someone like Liam Neeson can still find successful work as an action star despite crossing the age of 50 years old. Liam Neeson has made a name for himself in these types of properties as the "not too old to be a badass" face in the current Hollywood landscape. Unfortunately, whereas the first Taken film became something of a pop culture phenomenon having one of modern cinema's most heavily quoted lines (you know the one from the iconic phone scene), the following sequels left much to be desired dragging the franchise into the ether of forgettability. As great as Liam Neeson is as our leading man throughout these ventures, the fact of the matter is that the storytelling here just doesn't leave much room for creativity and progression. 

This isn't the world of James Bond, Jason Bourne, or even John Wick where you have a rogues gallery of assassins and entertaining global threat villains. Instead, it's a guy who either has someone being "taken" from him or he himself being kidnapped as a result. There's only so much you can do with that premise until it becomes repetitive or leaning towards self parody. We saw Brian's (Liam Neeson's character) daughter get kidnapped in the first film, Brain himself getting kidnapped in the second entry, and now his wife getting killed off along with his freedom hanging on the line. It starts to feel like an exercise of how much more the studio can milk both the franchise branding and Neeson as a household name more so than a compelling and excitement worthy series. 

I can't emphasize enough how much I enjoy Liam Neeson in these types of roles and there is something rather satisfying about watching him effectively take down a group of armed men by himself. However, that was before I started to realize just how much his "badass image" was being questionably forced on me. Taken 3's biggest problem isn't necessarily in its writing or characters, but instead its glaringly forced upon direction surrounding the movie's supposed "thrilling excitement". Look no further than the editing department for this sentiment where even the simplest of action scenes are at times given an outrageous amount of cuts resulting in an immensely fast paced sense of desperation. As a viewer, I felt completely disconnected from what I was watching in regards to character immersion and instead was focusing more on the distracting production elements. 

Any semblance of emotional investment or genuine excitement felt non-existent throughout leading to me experiencing everything on a more surface level. This is one of those viewings that I'd imagine would encourage the popular phrase "Just turn your brain off and enjoy" by moviegoers. For me personally, that's not something that I'd enjoy taking part in unless the movie itself was strongly selling that idea as a marketed "hook factor" from the beginning. Taken 3 is most definitely not a title that entirely belongs in this category as it takes itself seriously enough in its dramatic and thriller component to bypass that sensibility. 

Echoing its predecessor, as a moviegoing experience, I found myself fighting the urge to fall asleep which is extremely rare for me to go through at the theaters. Again, the immersion of this world as well as the storytelling engagement rings hollow to me with this sequel. The side characters are bland, easily expendable, and are only there to offer up some purpose to Neeson's punching and kicking whenever they're faced with danger. The daughter character (played by Maggie Grace) has actually grown on me with this entry as a recurring character, but despite being the perfect emotional crutch for our protagonist to give us something to latch onto, I just couldn't quite get to that point of feeing fearful for her life.

 

She's constantly being thrown into dangerous situations in these sequels, and yes, for the sake of the story and character, it would be very unfortunate if something bad happens to her being this innocent bystander caught up in a terrible mess. But aside from the first film where her kidnapping rang true as this terrifying tragedy that needed to be resolved, Takens 2-3 never really lives up to that initial impact of dramatic stakes. If we had an entire Taken movie that had nothing to do with her or the wife, I honestly wouldn't feel any sense of curiosity as to where they were and whether or not they were okay whatsoever. And that...well that's a big problem. I can only say that she's become a little bit more useful for certain things involving Brian's "set of skills" making her the least expendable of the bunch, but nothing beyond that point. 

Surprisingly, there is a little glimmer of light that can be found within this particular movie's cast which shines upon Forest Whitaker who plays the inspector hunting down Brian and piecing everything together. There's just something about his screen presence that had me constantly wishing that the filmmakers would cut to his character much more often. The majority of his scenes consists of him simply smiling after Brian would successfully evade him and his team as if he was having fun tracking down his most difficult and dangerous target ever. This created a fun cat and mouse chase element to the narrative worth at the very least tagging along for the ride whenever he was primarily focused on.

Now with his being marketed as the conclusion to the franchise hopefully topping off the trilogy on a high note, I went into this expecting something truly captivating with all hands on the deck in the writing and production department. Instead, Taken 3 just came across as yet another sequel in a dragged out series of people surprising Liam Neeson with something new that they stole from him. If you'd told me that Taken 4 was announced immediately after and would instead act as the true finale now involving Brian being targeted by Russian assassins, I would've said "Sure, why not?". What makes this feel like just another installment is primarily the twist and ending which was both predictable as it was underwhelming to say the least. I think that final statement just about covers my overall feelings walking out. 

At the end of the day, the best part about all of this is that we never have to see another one of these ever again, right? ...Right?

Rating: 4/10