Taken 2, despite the critical panning it received, was something I
tolerated and even enjoyed. Taken 3?
Not so. It’s simply an
unremarkable, forgettable movie – neither good enough to be impressed and
satisfied about, nor even bad enough to enjoy lampooning. I thought that a “being-set-up-for-murder”
premise instead of another “kidnapping” premise would provide a fresh adventure
for the franchise, but what resulted was a dumb, mediocre story. If it hadn’t been a part of a popular franchise,
if it didn’t star Liam Neeson, and if it hadn’t featured Brian Mills, one of
the most notably badass fictional spooks ever, by itself, Taken 3 can be easily dismissed as an averagely bad direct-to-video
movie.
Liam Neeson will always have an awesome
screen presence, and this holds true in Taken
3. However, the characterization of
Bryan Mills in Taken 3 is poor. The character seemed to be less smart, less
badass, and less well-layered. It felt
like Mills was downgraded into a clichéd action hero. Most of the blame is definitely on the bad
script, but the likelihood of Neeson getting tired working on a franchise that
is getting uninspired by the movie could probably have contributed, too
Good, engaging characters often
distract me from most of a story’s problems.
So without that aspect unavailable, finding things to nitpick is made
easier. The narrative was lazy and
insipid. The directing, editing, and
camera job were untidy. The bulk of the
action scenes were unexciting and unoriginal.
The musical choice was awful.
Most of the characters were uninteresting. In summary, Taken 3 is a waste of a great character in Bryan Mills, a waste of
a great actor in Liam Neeson, a waste of the first Taken movie’s goodwill and world-building, and an overall waste of
time.
(/Sigh) John Wick probably ruined every action movie for me.
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