You can watch my youtube review HERE!!!
The first Taken was a small film that became a big hit. At the time it was considered fresh, especially when you consider that Liam Neeson was known for being a dramatic actor and not an action hero at the time. The film also played with one of societies biggest fears considering the state of the world for the past decade. Now this may make it sound like the first Taken was an important film...it is not. Unlike many people I know I didn't find the film be to that great. It was entertaining to an extent but rather mindless though it's far from the brainless films we tend to get in our blockbusters lately. But considering the small size of the budget, how popular it became and how much it influenced the current trend of action films today it of course got two sequels.
Tak3en...or Taken 3 is second sequel to the rather unexpected franchise and is directed by Taken 2 helmer Olivier Megaton (yes, that is his real last name). Liam Neeson returns as Bryan Mills along with Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen; new additions include Forest Whitaker and Dougray Scott. Now I actually never watched the second Taken film all the way through, I found it to be rather bad and was reviewing at the time so I felt no need to finish it. The good thing is you don't need to see the second film in order to watch the third instalment though I wouldn't recommend watching this film either anyway.
The latest Taken film follow Brian Mills (Neeson) on the run after being framed for the murder of his ex-wife (think The Fugitive but if it wasn't any good). Whitaker play the detective on his tale while they both have to deal with the Russian Mafia as well. While the first film wasn't smart it wasn't completely brainless. This film however is completely mindless; full of constant stupidity and an incredibly generic script. The film is so derivative of the films that have come before that even with its constant need to add plot twist after plot twist fails to surprise. But, considering several if the films I had to endure last year this films wasn't as painful as it could have been.
What is painful though is Olivier Magaton's direction; specifically his visual style. It is as if he got every possible coverage in the world and decided to use it all. The film is so edited to the extreme that there is rarely a shot that lasts a second, even in scenes where characters are just sitting down and talking. This makes for some of the most incoherent and overproduced visual storytelling I have seen in a long time...and I had to sit through Michael Bay's latest Transformers film. Fortunately Taken 3 isn't too long though it still could have been a bit shorter.
As far as the acting goes the cast does the best they can do with a hackneyed script like this and manage to bring enough credibility their characters. As generic and bad as the films is it is far from absolutely terrible though I will definitely say that it is in no way good. Taken really should have just been one solid film and not a franchise that has gone severely down hill. Like I said there's much better films of the same type out there (The Fugitive) and this one is not really worth your time.
2 out of 5 stars.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
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