Time: 109 Minutes
Age Rating: Violence and Offensive Language
Cast:
Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills
Forest Whitaker as Inspector Frank Dotzler
Maggie Grace as Kim Mills
Famke Janssen as Lenore Mills-St. John
Dougray Scott as Stuart St. John
Sam Spruell as Oleg Malankov
Leland Orser as Sam Gilroy
Director: Olivier Megaton

Liam Neeson returns as ex-covert operative Bryan Mills, whose long awaited reconciliation with his ex-wife is tragically cut short when she is brutally murdered. Consumed with rage, and framed for the crime, he goes on the run to evade the relentless pursuit of the CIA, FBI and the police. For one last time, Mills must use his “particular set of skills,” to track down the real killers, exact his unique brand of justice, and protect the only thing that matters to him now – his daughter.

Taken was a really good action thriller released in 2008 and it launched Liam Neeson’s action career. Even though I watched Taken 2 I can’t remember how it was, but judging by how it was received, I probably wouldn’t like it if I re-watched it. The director of that film returns to this movie (odd choice) to deliver us the concluding chapter to the Taken Trilogy. Taken 3 is terrible as an action movie, a thriller, and as a movie in general. The plot is convoluted and a mess and the action is so messy and incomprehensible. We all probably saw it coming with the director of Taken 2 returning but it is still painful to see Liam Neeson wasted in a bad action movie.

This movie is basically a bad version of The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford, the wife is killed and the husband is accused of murder and tries to find the murderer while dodging a highly skilled cop. The plot is so loosely stringed together and that led to many plot holes and conveniences. For example I never got how Liam Neeson was instantly framed as soon as he was discovered with his ex-wife’s body. It wasn’t like there was any hard evidence to prove it, it felt like the script was supposed to show a detail but it was left out. The plot is also very predictable, I was able to pick out the main villain within the first 20 minutes of the movie. Another thing to note is that Liam Neeson is basically a god in this movie. Even though in the original he was strong, you felt that he could be hurt badly. Here he’s pretty much invincible. In many ways this movie reminds me of Die Hard 5. They both have convoluted plots, terrible action and unstoppable main characters.

Liam Neeson is good in the movie, and when he has to act, he does a good job. Forrest Whitaker was also good, even though he was pretty much Tommy Lee Jones in the Fugitive, he was too good of an actor to be in this movie. Famke Jensen and Maggie Grace do fine. Generally the acting is fine, which probably means it’s probably the best part of the movie but it’s not saying a lot.

The action in Taken 3 is some of the worst action I’ve seen in a movie. There are so many cuts that happen in the action scenes that it’s often incomprehensible. I tried finding a shot that lasted 2 seconds long but it wasn’t there. There’s a scene where Neeson climbs over a fence and it used 7 shots to show it, not kidding. Also a lot of the action (and all the fight scenes) are done in close up, so I couldn’t understand what was going on. It becomes extremely frustrating as you try to figure out what is going on in these scenes.

Taken 3 is a terrible movie, if you haven’t seen the original, just watch that and skip 2 and 3. The plot was a mess, the action was awful and it was just a bad version of The Fugitive. I really felt that if Taken was to have sequels, it should’ve revolved around other characters, not Neeson’s family. The main focus of this movie wasn’t a kidnapping, so I don’t know why its part of a franchise called Taken. If you liked Taken, you should probably stay away from this movie and watch some of Neeson’s other action films as substitutes, they work a lot better than this movie.