The first review I ever did that was published in any sort of public medium was for the newspaper when I was at UCR. It was of the first Taken film. I was overly harsh on the film because I didn't know how beautiful it was at the time. It was a little hokey with good action, but no central villain. So, I gave it a C. Now, however, I wish I could go back and praise the hell out of it. Having seen its two sequels, I now understand how wrong I was and how much of a gem the first Taken was. This new installment shouldn't even be a Taken sequel. Sure, let Liam Neeson run from the cops for awhile and avenge his wife's death towards the end. That's cool. But, it's not a Taken movie. It's a different movie. A Taken movie has a very different formula, one that isn't Taken 3.
Let me just put this out there right now-- remember the first movie? Do you remember why it was so awesome? Because Liam Neeson kills EVERYONE. He'd go into a room with some guys and by the time he left the room, everyone who was in that room is dead. Then he'd go to another room and by the time he left that room everyone would be dead. The first Taken is just Liam Neeson going from a series of room to room killing everyone around him, in very brutal ways. The second and third movies decided against doing that. That's why we all loved the first movie so much because Neeson just killed people. Hell, he even shoots an innocent woman in the arm to get her husband to give up information. He was a bonafide badass. Where is that Bryan Mills? What happened to him? I mean, in Taken 3 he probably kills MAYBE nine people. That's it. Nine. Bryan Mills doesn't kill nine people. Bryan Mills kills EVERYONE. If you are in a Taken movie and you're not his wife and kid... you die. That's it. Plain and simple. Don't mess with the formula!
So, Bryan Mills' wife is killed. He's framed for it. He needs to escape the police, save his daughter, and figure out who killed his wife to clear his name and kill them a lot. While the police chasing Bryan may be a cool adventure/action flick for a different franchise, it kinda blows here. Not because it's not fun watching Neeson outsmart Forest Whitaker, but because Mills is also a good guy so he can't kill other good guys. We know he won't kill cops, so the first hour is just a lot of him running, them chasing, and us waiting for him to kill someone. Neeson doesn't kill anyone for the first hour... the first HOUR of a Taken film. What the hell's the matter with you?
The other part that sucks is that the film is incredibly PG-13. Somehow the first Taken was able to transcend the PG-13 rating and be one of the most violent movies I've ever seen without showing a single drop of blood. It wasn't bloody, it was just brutal. But the two since then have been so PG-13 they border on boring... this one especially. The deaths are all offscreen and none of them are even close to as brutal the deaths of the first film. I thought each sequel was supposed to up the ante even further? Instead, they've gotten more and more wimpy as the series goes on. (NINE PEOPLE!). I mean, my God, the wife has her throat slit and when we see her body, there's no cut or blood or anything. She just looks like she's sleeping. It's lame. I can't even remember a satisfying death in the film that stuck out to me like so many do from the first film.
Taken got a bad rap from me the first time around because I don't think I was quite ready to believe Liam Neeson as an action star at that point. It was one of his first, if not his first action movie. It was good, not great. But, as the sequels come out the more I appreciate everything the first Taken was. This new one was just bad. That isn't to say it's not fun watching Liam Neeson do ANYTHING, it's just not a Taken movie. It's not. It's the wimpy third cousin. Neeson is watchable through anything, but he's just not as badass in this. The writing and directing quality has gone severely down. Neeson should be given higher quality revenge films, movies like The Equalizer or John Wick. Both of which are great films that Neeson could've starred in and they would've been just as good. Taken 3 is nothing you need to see right away, or at all. There's nothing new to the franchise and he only kills nine people. Watch the first twelve minutes of Taken one where he kills double that and you'll be more satisfied.
C-
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