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Taken 3 – Movie Plot and Review

Release Date: [imdblive:date]

Certificate: [imdblive:certificate]

Director: [imdblive:directors_nolink]

Cast: [imdblive:cast_nolink]

Runtime: [imdblive:runtime] mins

Plot: [imdblive:plot]

The Taken Series

The first Taken film was released in 2008, where Liam Neeson (A Walk Among the Tombstones and Non-Stop) played a CIA operative called Bryan Mills, who’s job was to prevent unpleasant events from happening. However, his teenage daughter wants to visit Paris to follow a band, which Bryan’s ex-wife agreed to. Rather reluctantly he agrees, however, during a phone call between him and his daughter, she is kidnapped by men who want to sell her on as a sex slave. Liam Neeson became the official angry dad when he went to Paris in pursuit for his daughter against a gangster organisation and the French government.

The producers were mistaken in how successful this film would be. It was far more successful than they expected, bringing in $226.8 million at the box office when they only spent $25 million on it, also giving Liam Neeson a new career path.

In 2012, they decided to produce a sequel, this time based in Istanbul. Bryan and his ex-wife are on holiday and are both kidnapped by the father of the man Bryan killed trying to save his daughter in the first film. The first film was one of the greatest films of its year and is still considered today one of the greatest films of all time. However, this second film was a bitter disappointment for fans as it was clearly an add on to the evenst in the first film and felt too repetitive whilst not living up to the story or action packed excitement of the first one.

Taken 3

The trailer for Taken 3 showed potential, giving us the feeling that it will be greater than the second film, but unfortunately not as good as the first film. Whilst watching the film, I found this was true.

A key rule in movies, is that a sequel has to up the stakes. This became very apparent in this film that they have indeed been tried to be raised with a more ambitious story that follows from the previous films but doesn’t involve a member of his family being “taken”. Bryan’s ex-wife had died in his home and it looks as if he is to blame. Not only that, but he’s also up against the police and some Russians, one of which is ex- spetsnaz. However, the stakes are not as high as they seem in the trailer – as the trailer suggests that he’s also up against the FBI and the CIA, which is not true at all. In fact, no one even suggests in the film that the FBI or the CIA are in the battle against Bryan Mills.

The pressure is still on though, as not only is Bryan fighting for his life, but it also looks like the lives of other important people in his life are in peril.

It was very clear that this film had a different director than that who did the first one. The original was directed by Pierre Moral (The Transporter), where as this one was directed by Olivier Megaton (Colombiana). The first film had smooth and slick camera work and transitions, which made it even more terrifying when things jumped out at you. It felt like a drama, a thriller and at the same time a race against the clock. On the other hand, this latest sequel was clearly an action film, with quick, choppy camera work designed to make your heart skip a beat. Unfortunately, this also made the film harder to follow and meant that we skipped some critical moments which deserved some extra camera time for the audience to get goose bumps.

What’s more, it didn’t really feel like taken. Admittedly it was a good film, and one that I was glad to see. Saying that, we didn’t really see Bryan Mills till right at the end. Rather, you spent a lot of the time seeing Bryan Mills dodging cops and investigating, the police doing their own investigation and trying to keep up to pace with Bryan and we see his daughter living her normal life. These scenes take up the majority of the film, having the odd interval for a few car chases here and there.

All in all, it was an action film with the least action in it released since 2008 when the first one was released. What’s more, when action did take place it was frequently over the top, as they usually are. Saying this, it was interesting to see Bryan trying to save the day when disaster has officially struck instead of trying to prevent it. Although it wasn’t as good as the first film by any means, as I said, it was still a good film to watch and shouldn’t be taken too seriously.