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Why Is Taken 3 Such a Bad Action Movie?

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Liam Neeson

Liam Neeson’s Taken 3 was not a hit with the critics.

The most popular film at the box office last week was Liam Neeson‘s Taken 3, which took in almost $40 million in its first three days. It did not, however, take in the nation’s critics, only 11% of whom rated it favorably (Silver Screen Videos was not among that 11%). Although the critics had lots of reasons to dislike the movie, one common theme was the nearly universal loathing of the film’s confusing, headache-inducing action scenes.

Specifically, the movie’s big set piece is a freeway chase scene about halfway through the film that is one of the worst examples of the genre that I can recall. Sheila O’Malley of RogerEbert.com summed it up as follows: 

The number of cuts per scene is astronomical, ensuring that the audience never gets a chance to orient itself in the environment, or, for that matter, care about what is happening. … In one car chase scene, involving multiple police cars, an 18-wheeler, and the various commuters on the road, a car commandeered by Mills ends up driving the wrong way down a crowded freeway. At least I think that’s what I was seeing. The coked-up editing makes it impossible to tell… Effective car chase scenes involve care in the execution: it’s not enough to show a car flipping over in slo-mo, surrounding it with 100 quick edits designed to disorient. Ironically, that approach ends up making it look like the movie is trying too hard.Sheila O'Malley

I don’t have access to clips of the car chase scene. But I can show you a similar chase scene from the previous movie in the series, Taken 2, also directed by Olivier Megaton:

 


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Taken 3: Mini-Review

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Liam Neeson

Liam Neeson stars in Taken 3

C- Liam Neeson is back for the third time as former CIA agent Bryan Mills turned vengeful ex-husband and father in Taken 3. This time, none of his loved ones have been kidnapped; instead, ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) is murdered, and he’s the prime suspect. For once, Mills actually has an interesting adversary, but it’s not any of the Russian mobsters who actually killed Lenore, or the master criminal, whose identity is fairly easy to guess. Instead, it’s the cop chasing Mills, Forest Whitaker, who’s a lot smarter than cops in movies like this typically are. Whitaker has a lot of fun with the role, and Neeson, as usual, is believably tough as Mills.

Unfortunately, the action scenes in Taken 3 are a mess. Director Olivier Megaton uses lightning fast edits and shaky camera work to a headache-inducing fault, and it’s impossible to tell what’s going on in most of the action scenes. Usually in this type of movie, the action scenes make the film somewhat worth watching despite the ridiculous plot. Here, viewers hope the action scenes end quickly so they can see more of Neeson and Whitaker. Our full review of Taken 3 is now available on Silver Screen Cinema.
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