This movie makes me sad.
One of my New Years resolutions is to
see more movies and write about them. I'm starting out strong, but
already behind. It doesn't help that the first movie of the new year
that I sit down to see is what I can only hope is the last of a
franchise unable to live up to its first entry.
I can gush over Taken all day, so I'll
keep it short by saying that the film was an unexpected hit and, in
my opinion, a perfect action movie. Short in length, simple plot,
heavy on the violence and threat thereof. It also gave new life to
the career of a man I've always been a fan of but never clicked with
the mainstream. Taken is inarguably one of the best action films in
recent memory, and possibly one of the best ever. But as with any
other moderately successful film these days, it just had to have a
sequel.
Taken 2 was a shadow of its
predecessor, neutering both the main character and the franchise
itself as quickly as possible. The change in director was evident and
not for the better. What should have been an easy path into a
franchise became a sad extension of the first film, much like Quantum
of Solace was to Casino Royale. I was willing to forgive Taken 2 if
the third installment gave me what I wanted out of the second.
Needless to say, Taken 3 failed spectacularly.
In my mind, the logical path that the
Taken franchise was simple: Liam Neeson's work in the first film
earns him a spot back on his old team, also established in the first
film. They then go off on hijinks involving rescuing highly valued
captives from shady individuals with broken wine bottles, threatening
phone conversations and general badassery. Instead, Taken 3 becomes a
far too convoluted whodunnit mystery a la The Fugitive with not so
much action as there is a whole bunch of people on cellphones.
The plot we are given is as such: Old
man Liam is framed for a murder and must go on the lam using his very
particular set of skills to both evade capture and uncover who set
him up and why. Even this synopsis sounds simple, but there is layer
upon layer of unnecessary subplot that makes the film seem hours
longer than it was. Also would have been fine, had there been as much
action as the previous films. There wasn't, and the action we do get
is over-edited and choppy. Extremely hard to watch. And with at least
30 minutes without the only reason to see the film (Neeson) onscreen,
it's easy to forget why you're even there.
The big problem I have with this movie
is simply that it falls into SO MANY TROPES, and everyone's the worse
for it. First off, when I said Neeson had to 'evade capture', what I
meant was that he beat the everliving crap out of every cop that
crossed his path. Now, this has been a bit of a problem for me in
every 'the hero's been framed' action film I've ever seen (which is
an approximate fuck ton). So, you're innocent. That's great and all,
but laying smacks down on every cop in line of sight might not be the
best way to make your case. Now, even if your innocence for the
murder is proven, you're going to jail forever on a billion counts of
resisting arrest and assaulting officers. And that's after you get
many batons and tazers shoved up unpleasant places.
And hey, while we're at that, you might
not have to run so fast if you didn't make yourself seem so god damn
guilty. Neeson makes every innocent-man-finds-crime-scene mistake you
can. He fondles the murder weapon, he disturbs the body, he tries to
talk the cops out of taking him in, and wraps it all up with a bunch
of THROAT PUNCHING. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a man with a very
particular set of skills which, I imagine, involved him being even
the slightest bit covert. If anyone should have an understanding as
to what's going on, it's him. Setting stuff like this up was his job,
and the past two films were spent establishing that it was a job he
was pretty god damn stellar at. But here he is, doing a fine job of
being an asshole to the people trying to find a killer. You're losing
your touch, Liam.
I know that this review has been living
on the negative side of the film, but there's good reason. At the end
of the day, a film franchise that was once razor sharp has completely
lost its edge. Everything that I liked about Taken 3 was a direct
callback from the first film (ie. Liam hiding under a body to
surprise oncoming bad guy). I truly hope that either this is the true
death of the franchise, or that new life is somehow breathed into it.
Trust me, if you're looking for an action film on par with
Taken...well, just rewatch Taken. It's still great.
Knight Owl
