Taken 3 - Danny's Review

I went to an educational event at a venue which included an IMAX. Afterwards I thought I'd take advantage of the Cinema, but unfortunately the only thing playing was Taken 3. I was as excited as anyone by the first Taken movie, but any goodwill from that has now long faded, and it was no surprise that there were only three of us in the biggest screen in Scotland.

The start is dire as they reintroduce the characters in their daily lives. There's one major update. Since the last movie Famke Jansen has wisely divorced Bryan Mills (Neeson), but very unwisely shacked up with Dougray Scott. Neeson is cool with this though, and is at peace with himself and the world. He grins a lot and says how much he loves his daughter. It's definitely not what action fans want to see, and after 15 minutes of this I was desperate for someone to be taken, even if it was me.

When the action kicks in there are a few satisfying moments - I liked his secret hideout full of guns and other secret stuff. But there's a lot of dross too. The daughter Kim is exactly like Jack Bauer's daughter (also called Kim) in that despite having been kidnapped numerous times she constantly plays down the risk of it happening again. Doesn't she remember Paris? Istanbul?

Forest Whitaker plays the chief detective, who is much smarter than all the other goon policeman that Neeson routinely outwits. And much fatter. Each time when old man Mills gets away the detective says there's no point chasing after him, out of respect for Neeson's skills, or maybe just because he doesn't want to have to run any more.

At the end the plot thickens a bit and builds up to a decent Russian mafia shootout. The very best bit is when Neeson decides to let the final villain live, instead promising that when they get out of prison he'll come find him, "and we both know how that'll end". It's a bit chilling. But after that he ruins it by going to see his daughter and saying how much he loves her again, and the film suffers from the worst tough-guy-softened-by-baby ending since Wall Street 2.

Overall, very poor.