TAK3N (**½)

Directed by: Olivier Megaton

Starring: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Dougray Scott, Sam Spruell

Seen: January 16^th 2015

**½ Out of ****

The Taken movies, in substance and style, are copies. Sadly, each subsequent movie is a copy of a copy. The first was a great surprise, the second less so, and this third one even less. That’s not to say this one is void of entertainment value, it’s just nowhere near where the series started off. The action is decent and somewhat tense, but the dramatic elements are showing wear and tear, particularly in an early scene between Liam Neeson and Famke Janssen – the dialogue is lazy and extremely unimaginative. The story is slightly more inventive, but some of the casting choices should warn some viewers of what’s coming (I will say nothing more, to avoid spoilers).

TAK3N starts with Bryan Mills (Neeson) visiting his daughter Kim (Grace) just after she finds out that she is pregnant, which she hides from Mills. He returns home where his ex-wife and Kim’s mother Lenore (Janssen) tells him of her marital problems with Stuart (Scott), and her thoughts of rekindling their relationship (the truly weak scene I referred to earlier). The next day, after a visit from Stuart to ask Mills to stay away from Lenore, she sends Bryan a message asking for them to meet. Bryan goes out to purchase bagels, but on returning home he finds Lenore dead in his room. The police are there in moments, the frame complete, and Mills resorts to brutal but non-lethal violence to escape. He goes on the run from LAPD Inspector Frank Dotzler (Whitaker) and his team, simultaneously investigating any leads he can to figure out the truth of the matter. The evidence leads Bryan to Oleg Malankov (Spruell), an ex-KGB Afghan war veteran with a terrible resume, whom Stuart owed money to, who becomes a key driver in unravelling the full story.

The movie features some cool action, with some fist fights and brutally short gunfights, but this is almost a drama compared to the first Taken. Mills reverses a car into an elevator shaft to escape one chase, which is, even in the Taken universe, a bridge too far. It’s mentioned somewhere near the beginning of the movie that Mills is a trained sniper: I want to know - is this a new skill to the series, or am I forgetting something from the first two movies? It doesn’t matter though, as he doesn’t snipe anyone or anything.

Liam Neeson has previously stated that there will not be a third Taken movie, and it looks as though he’s just going through the motions of making this movie – as if he isn’t as invested in it as he was previously. For that matter, no one stood out as looking as though they’re trying very hard, as if all those involved couldn’t really be bothered to deliver a good movie. On its own TAK3N might have seemed slightly better, but it’s standing in the shadow of its prequels, one of which on its own, was also not that great. I don’t regret seeing TAK3N, but I will also not really remember it for long. My home movie collection will only ever feature the first Taken movie.