Through The Rear Window: Movie Review ... Taken 3

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Movie Review ... Taken 3

All good things don’t necessarily come in threes. Hollywood is consumed with numerous movie trilogies. Not only does a trio of films garner hopefully profitable franchises but it makes selling DVD box sets much easier. But there are some sequels that never should be made. ‘Taken 3’ is a case in point. Crafted simply to add another lazy instalment to a tired series, it fails to provide any entertainment despite a solid leading man.

Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is an ex-government operative enjoying retirement. After recent attempts at attacking his family, he hopes his dark days are finished. Fate has other plans when his wife is killed and he becomes a marked man. With the police and government agents on his tail, he races to save his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). Using his deadly skills, Mills goes on mission to track down those responsible for turning his life into endless hell.

Directed with intense flair by the aptly named Oliver Megaton, ‘Taken 3’ delivers a ton of explosions. Those expecting to see guns, death and destruction will be pleased. This is just as well as there is little else to recommend this sorry excuse of an action film. In spite of Liam Neeson’s typically dignified performance, even his presence cannot hide the shambolic script and atrocious editing.

Illogic abounds in a screenplay full of holes and risible dialogue. None of it is helped with sequences so badly sliced together as to make them almost incomprehensible. ‘Taken 3’ never allows the story to properly ‘breathe’ with little room for characterisation. As a supposedly final third instalment to a franchise it adds nothing to the overall series arc. ‘Taken 3’ simply exists to fill up another space on the DVD shelf with fiery antics quickly forgotten.

A ‘one tub of popcorn’ action yarn, ‘Taken 3’ wheezes its way to a predictable climax. All involved could have done better with the millions apparently spent on pay-packets than providing something startlingly original.