Movie Review: Taken 3

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taken_3#mediaviewer/File:Taken_3_poster.jpg

A movie about family; a father on the rescue for his love ones no matter what kind of trouble he will be dealing with, I am sure those movie addicts like me know what I am talking about. The famous Taken; now on its third installment, Taken 3. 

I am a Liam Neeson fan not just because of his captivating voice but also because of how he executes the character given to him. With this, I planned to see the movie on a big screen and because I am still on the hunt of the book "Still Alice" which will make me drop any bookstores I can see at the mall. My husband, also a Neeson fan and an action-movie fanatic went along; he had seen the trailer earlier than me. 

The movie started with a guy who was abducted from his home, demanded to open a vault in search for I am sure a huge amount of money but there was nothing, he was shot dead and was left locked inside the vault, a phone call to an unknown person requiring a payment ended it.

As we all know, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is a divorced ex-CIA whose skills in solving crimes never declined, is now a friend of his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen). Lenore's marriage to Stuart St. John (Dougray Scott) is on the brink of getting broken and so Lenore is trying to get an emotional support from Bryan. Because he is still in love with her, he tried to give her support even giving him an extra key to his apartment in case she wants a place to stay for a while. On the other hand, Kim Mills (Maggie Grace) is having her birthday in three days. Bryan decided to surprise her with a gift trying to change his predictable routine unpredictable but Kim who just found out she's pregnant was not able to appreciate what his father did. While the movie was in progress, Bryan got a text message from Lenore asking him to meet her at Bryan's apartment; he bought bagels before he headed home. He found Lenore lying on his bed dead. Then the police came but Bryan manage to escape from them. Franck Doztler (Forest Whitaker), the inspector of the crime is determined to capture Bryan; and here the unending car chase, phone calls and getting leads on the crime had begun. 

As I have said earlier, Liam Neeson was able to perform flawlessly in this third film, but it is noticeable that he has aged if we are going to compare Taken 1 from this. It can't deny he's now 62. 

Maggie Grace, being the center of the film even from the Taken 1 did very well in her role. She's a vulnerable daughter yet strong enough to fight for the integrity of her father. I really liked the part where she was being interrogated by Franck. You can clearly see that she admires and loves her father to a great extent.

I would say that Dougray Scott was not good enough to hide his true identity. I was able to point from the death of Lenore that he has a big role in revealing who is responsible for the killing. However, he was able to show how irritating he was in the film. I guess the way he speaks had a big advantage. 

Forest Whitaker who I know has played an agent to different films should be shown more in the movie, unfortunately, not.The other actors who played Russians in the film did well especially during the fight scenes. 

The writers, Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen were good enough to put a twist but it was a little predictable. They could have done better since this is presumed to be the last installment of the film. But maybe not, her daughter is not yet safe. I guess I am just hoping there's a 4th one to make up for this one. And if there's another Taken, I would hope they will show more of Forest Whitaker.

Olivier Megaton clearly fell on this one. I highly anticipated this since the first two came heavy but I said "that's it?" my mind was saying after watching it. 

Oh well, if you love action, entertainment and of course Liam Neeson, give it a try but don't expect too much.Taken is very famous for a verbal menace from Liam but I couldn't seem to find a heavy one this time.