Saturday 17 January 2015

Taken 3 it ends here, really?

Framed and wanted for murder retired CIA operative Mills goes out for revenge with some help from his former comrades.

Thankfully Liam Neeson reprises his role as Bryan Mills and is not given a younger comedy sidekick, love interest or any other cliché they tend to pop into a sequel these days. Forest Whitaker is on form and his character is charged with hunting Mills down A-Team style. No characters are kidnapped or 'taken' refreshingly until the final act. Maggie Grace and Fame Janssen return along side Leland Orser and Jon Gries all of which give good performances but are given very little to do. With Janssen's Lenore husband recast with Dougray Scott it gives an air of depth but also predictability.

Like part two Olivier Megaton offering is hampered by it's watered-down tone and while the action set ups and drama are interesting the sequences lack the edge that made the first outing so memorable. Still it's a stunning looking on location film and Megaton's direction is as slick as the editing.

Seasoned and fine writers Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen drop the ball slightly here and force feed a poor series of twists that are straight from C.S.I or the Crime Channel. That said, it's main issue is that it premise borrows heavily from The Fugitive and US Marshalls to name a few. Also coming off the back of the much grittier Equalizer remake it lacks magic which made the first Taken so good.

Neeson is great as usual and it's entertaining enough, it's just not as good as many of producer Besson's other productions.