Movie Review: Taken 3

Director: Olivier Megaton

Starring: Liam Neeson, Forest Whittaker, Maggie Grace, Dougray Scott & Famke Janssen

In A Few Words: Former CIA operative Bryan Mills is back in action when he is falsely accused of his ex-wife's murder. He must uncover the conspiracy and save his daughter with the LAPD tracking his every move.

Rating: 8/10

The original Taken, released in 2008, was a pleasant surprise at the box office, and showed the rest of the movie-making world that you didn’t need a young star to helm your new action franchise. Instead, there was the softly-spoken Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills, a former CIA operative with a shady past and an arsenal of violent tricks from which to draw from as he chases his kidnapped daughter across Europe, wading through the murky underworld of Europe, dealing out death and misfortune all the way. With input from Luc Besson, Taken was a beautifully-shot film, and it resonated with audiences.

So much so that Taken 2 appeared four years later, and was a poor substitute for the original. It was a revenge film, and perhaps it would’ve worked, had they not toned down the graphic violence in order to – I presume – get a more favourable classification at the cinema, and expose the film to more eyes. It just didn’t work, a complete rehash of the first one, yet another example of the sequel being vastly inferior to the original. Taken 2 was hard work to watch. I really hoped they’d put an end to the franchise. 

Instead, along came Taken 3 – because of it’s superior box office performance – and I was sceptical going into the cinema. Two hours later, it turns out that my fears were misplaced. I really enjoyed Taken 3. No, it wasn’t as good as the thrilling original film in what I hope is a neat and completed trilogy, but it was a fun action film that sees Neeson’s scarily-competent Mills on the run after his ex-wife, Lenore (Janssen) is murdered in his apartment. 

Of course, the cops and just about everyone else think it’s an open-and-shut case, and that Mills is as guilty as sin, but we all know he isn’t. So, too, does his daughter, Kim (Grace) and the group of ex-CIA operatives who have shown up to help their friend, Mills, in previous films. And that’s about all Mills needs to sort things out. He goes on the run, though a pretty perceptive LAPD inspector (Whittaker) is on his tale, and seems to be piecing things together along the way, though you never quite know for sure.

There’s some great tension in this film, which was completely missing from it’s predecessor, and it’s derived from the fact that, aside from his daughter and close friends, Mills can’t trust anyone, including his ex-wife’s current husband, Stuart (Scott), who is in the middle of a messy marriage breakdown with Lenore when she is murdered. It’s a shame that the excellent Zander Berkeley isn’t back to play the character he portrayed in the first film.

Of course, there are plenty of European underworld types – Russian gangsters, mostly, in garishly bright shirts – and Mills deals out his typical brand of violence, though more sanitised than in the first film. He’s unravelling the mystery one destination at a time, and getting closer to a spiralling conspiracy. There’s more than just Mills beating up and shooting people, although he does plenty of that. To a certain point, you knew how the first two were going to end. You knew who the bad guys were, and what was coming to them.

Not quite so readily with Taken 3. There was an element of paranoid doubt as Mills continues his quest to prove his innocence, protect his daughter, find out who really killed his wife, and do it all ahead of the pursuing LAPD. That, to me, is the film’s strength. Until the very end, nothing was quite certain. I mean, we all knew that Bryan Mills and his friends would be okay, but how would they get to that point? That was the tense bit.

I must admit, I didn’t see the final twist coming, and that made it a better film. Just when you thought you knew exactly what was going on, there was one final curve-ball thrown in. And, at the end, everything is tied up neatly, signalling the end of the trilogy, even though there’s a possibility – a slight possibility – that a fourth one could be made. You’ll see what I mean, but I think Bryan Mills has run his course, and should be left to enjoy life now. Besides, are there any Euro gunmen left to be killed?

Even if you were disappointed by Taken 2, give Taken 3 a go.