Review: Taken 3 worse than Taken 2
In the film “Taken 3”, directed by Olivier Megaton, ex-covert operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), once again uses his “particular set of skills”, to go above and beyond to protect his family.
The first movie of the Taken series was a hit. The sequel, “Taken 2”, followed up on the first’s plot. The third film, however, has a completely new storyline.
Bryan Mills and his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Jenssen) begin to rekindle their relationship as her marriage with Stuart St. John (Dougray Scott) falls apart. Stuart asks Bryan to stop talking to Lennore because he believes that Bryan is the reason his marriage with Lenore is failing. The following day, Bryan receives a text from Lenore, asking to come over. When Bryan arrives home after running an errand, he spots a knife on the floor in his hallway. He finds Lenore dead, with her throat slit on his bed. For the rest of the film, Bryan seeks out Lenore’s murderer while the LAPD searches for him, thinking that he committed the murder.
People have complained that this movie had less action than the others of the series, which is true. However, it still fully captured my attention. Every action scene had an interesting twist to it and the film was very well thought out. In one scene, Bryan succeeds in escaping out of a cop car and kicking the officers out while driving with his clever tricks.
On the downside, some of the scenes were left a mystery. Bryan escapes two major life-threatening moments with no explanation as to how. He jumps in an elevator shaft to avoid danger, but somehow escapes with no explanation as to how. Later, he is in an awful car crash and manages to safely roll out of the car unharmed. The movie is a little confusing and it requires a lot of attention to understand what’s going on, yet the plot is very entertaining and somewhat unexpected.
The actors and actresses portrayed their parts very well and each character had an interesting and unique role to the story line. Liam Neeson once again perfected the role of Bryan Mills. Of course, he has had quite some time to practice. The character Stuart St. John is new to the series and was played by Dougray Scott, which did an amazing job acting out Stuart’s suspicious attitude.
“Taken 3” was an entertaining film. However, despite the fine acting and decent storyline, I enjoyed the first two of the series much more. If you are a fan of the “Taken” series, I would suggest you go see the movie, but don’t get your expectations too high – the first movie was far more entertaining and thrilling.
