Cut from here, go to there, start a new, completely unrelated conversation and now, here’s Mills attempting to go for a jog, which leads to…
I’d say the first ten opening scenes all play incongruous to one another. Huh? What, what was with all the nighttime stuff? Was that just to showcase the song? If this sounds like nitpicking, it’s not. Continuous hackneyed music cues tip you off as to whether this will be a taut next five minutes or just a casual, horribly shot diner conversation and this begins with the credits that provide helicopter shots of nighttime Los Angeles as names bounce around the screen… cut to… daytime. You can almost see the ticking clock start at the beginning of each scene. Okay, that last one is a stretch since these police are more like Barney Fife than Crockett and Tubbs, but the key here is nothing matters. While attempting to clear his name, Mills destroys about a mile long stretch of highway, assaults several police officers, most likely kills at least a couple of innocent bystanders in the process, does kill several Russian mobsters, illegally downloads police files and coerces his daughter ( Maggie Grace) in obstructing a police investigation. He’s quick to realize Mills will always be two steps ahead of him, but not quick enough to keep his team in the loop as they try and hunt Mills down in the midst of the carnage he’s about to inflict on the city of Los Angeles. On the case is Detective Franck Dotzler ( Forrest Whitaker), a man that loves to carry around a chess piece, snap rubber bands and eat evidence at crime scenes. The story revolves around Mills’ ex-wife ( Famke Janssen) being killed, he’s set up for the murder and instead of cooperating with the police he runs, assaulting two police officers in the process.
Mills survives no fewer than two massive explosions and manages to dodge close to 1,000 bullets as he hobbles through Taken 3, a film with absolutely zero consequences both narratively and literally. Screenwriters Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen have something else in mind and it will turn the seemingly well-trained Bryan Mills into an indestructible, doddering, geriatric cyborg. When we last left him he was killing an Albanian mobster who vouched his sons would avenge his death, which would seem to be the likely scenario for this sequel to pick up on. He and his special skills have already gone to hell and back overseas, dispatching sex traffickers, kidnappers and any nefarious characters that stood in his way. Taken 3 finds Liam Neeson back in the role as Bryan Mills. The proper reply is to ask, “Did you watch the movie?” Because if you saw with your own eyes what I saw I’d hope you’d already know the answer, but since you asked… Now, to the question, Why was Taken 3 not any good? To be honest, I don’t even think it’s a question that should be asked. But they must do something with them because they always ask. I don’t know what they do with them, the movie has already been made, early Thursday screenings of the film were probably already taking place as she asked and I doubt they were going to attempt any reshoots or edits based on my thoughts. Walking out of my screening of Taken 3 a publicist asked me, “So what did you think?” I was kind and said, “It’s not very good at all.” She replied, “Why was it not good?” I understand she was just doing her job, studios like to get notes from critics walking out of movies.