Taken 3

I was super excited to see this movie because I really liked the first Taken, heck I even liked Taken 2, but it turns out that Taken 3, while cheesy fun on quite a bit of moments, on other moments is just downright lazy filmmaking. The film was extremely poorly constructed and uneven (sometimes I forgot I was watching Taken 3), and the editing just kept jump cutting repetitively when it wasn't really needed almost to the point where it felt like the editor was upset about something. And this is coming from someone who loves that same style of editing in films like Transporter 3 (which is ironically by the same director of this film.) Even scenes when Liam Neeson and Forrest Whitaker are talking to each other or something, it feels like they cut about 100 times. Speaking of what I said about poorly constructed, there will be plot points introduced for no other purpose than to make a certain scene a type of a way and to introduce it way too early (if that makes any sense). For instance, the film opens up with this dude who's kidnapped by these crazy psychopaths and locked in a closet. I profess that the only reason it's introduced in the beginning is to open up the movie "gritty" considering the next legitimate opening is a charming opening credits sequence. That plot point (but not the exact key scene) is revealed near the films climax, but it would've been way more surprising and well done if revealed at that time instead of at the opening of the film. That also leads me into the jaw droppingly obvious twists. Why the fudge else would there be bizarringly chilling music playing in the background when Lenny's husband is talking to Bryan. Don't make it so freaking obvious! As many flaws as I have with this film, there was actually quite a bit I enjoyed in this film. Liam Neeson once again boasts an extremely charismatic performance as Bryan Mills, There's lots of action sequences that are really fun (my personal favorites are the cop car chase and the fight in the convenient store), the chemistry between Bryan and his family still remains genuine and sincere, and I was at first really liking the film. (that is until it got less entertaining after about 20-30 minutes maybe?) But otherwise, it's pretty obvious that Fox rushed this supposedly final action installment. But that doesn't mean it isn't worth seeing with some friends and some popcorn and fro yo and indulge in the silliness of it all.