Strike 3

Taken 3

Okay so this is the third movie in the Taken series and because of that I will not be doing a setup for this. I wish I could think of something witty to say about this, but I have barely anything nice to say. So let us just dive right into the review...

Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson A Walk Among the Tombstones) is thrust into another bad situation. This time around Mills' ex-wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen X-Men) is mysteriously murdered. Of course, Mills is the only suspect of his ex-wife's murder and it is up to Mills to clear his own name.

Well folks, Hollywood has milked another cash-cow dry. Financially the Taken series has done quite well for itself, but the down side to that is the plots have become exponentially worse. The first movie's plot was good, the second one was a rehash of the first, and now this film's plot is just a little ridiculous.

I will admit, it is always fun to watch Liam Neeson kick butt, however this film is pushing my limits. The action scenes in this film are good, but the scenes try so hard to cover up what a worthless plot the film has collectively. Here is an example of what I am talking about, there is a sub-plot about Mills' daughter Kim (Maggie Grace LOST) being pregnant. Why do we need this? This sub-plot has no bearing on the story whatsoever and in all honesty, who cares? It is not like we watched her grow up on screen. The other major thing that bothered me is that if Mills would have been arrested and taken into custody then the police would have figured out how bogus his setup would be and then Mills would have been released to wreak vengeance on whomever he chose. Now I know the screenwriters did this for entertainment purposes, but it was way too obvious that this could have happened.

 

Olivier Megaton returns as director, but I do not think he really wanted to return. This film is so lazily put together that I am amazed it even made it to theaters. Megaton is a good director, as can be seen with his work on Colombiana. On this film however, Megaton just slaps this film together to get a paycheck.

As I said before, this film has good action scenes, but they haven’t the strength to cover the stupid plot. For fans of the first two films, savior the memories of the joy you felt with those and skip this one. For fans like me that were satisfied with just the first Taken, this film will not re-spark your interest.

The Verdict: Watch On Cable