Taken 3 Is for Diehard Liam Neeson Fans Only

Rating:

The much-awaited Liam Neeson-starrer Taken 3 is out in theaters, and like me, if you have been following the Taken film series, then you probably wouldn’t be expecting much from this last installment in the trilogy. Even though Taken was an above average movie, its sequel was nowhere as good as the original, and Taken 3, although marginally better, is still a far cry from the 2008 film.
In Taken, we saw Liam Neeson’s character, Bryan Mills, an ex-government operative, go all out after the kidnappers of his daughter, Kim, played by Maggie Grace. Lenore (Famke Janssen), his ex-wife was kidnapped in the second installment, and Bryan didn’t spare the perpetrators even this time. However, in Taken 3, we see the tables turned on Bryan, who finds himself framed for the murder of Lenore. For the most part, we see Bryan on the run eluding the cops and trying to find the people who killed his ex-wife.
Stuart St. John (Dougray Scott), Lenore’s husband, is also on the radar of possible suspects for his shady dealings with the Russian mafia. Forest Whitaker plays Inspector Franck Dotzler, in charge of bringing in Bryan. Only, his job is not enviable as he is dealing with a person with a particular set of skills that makes him very dangerous.
The saving grace here is Liam Neeson. Oh boy, at 62 this guy can give any younger actor a run for his money when it comes to playing the badass! Apart from that, there isn’t much that one can say in favor of Taken 3. Every time Inspector Franck Dotzler came on screen, it almost made me giggle, and in the end, when the thing about the warm bagels came up, I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. I wasn’t the only one.
The screenplay is predictable, and there aren’t any action sequences that you haven’t seen before. The editing is pretty ordinary too. If it weren’t for Liam Neeson, who makes unbelievable action scenes seem plausible, this movie would have been awful. As it is, I would recommend only Liam Neeson fans go for Taken 3.