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Blu-ray Review: TAKEN 3

Apr 26, 2015 Posted by in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments


In this third installment of the Taken franchise, former-CIA operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is back and once again needs to deploy his “very particular set of skills”. This time around, someone close to Mills is killed and he is framed for the murder. Mills is then on a one-man mission to find out who really committed the murder, bring them to justice and clear his name. At the same time, he is playing a cat and mouse game with LAPD detective Franck Dotzler (Forest Whitaker), who always seems to be one step behind.

While the original Taken film is one of my all-time favorites, each sequel seems to give diminishing returns. While this third installment has some great action sequences (which I’ll get to in a bit), I just didn’t feel as engaged as I did with the first two films. I think one of the reasons is that this entire film takes place in Los Angeles, so it loses the international flair of the first two films, which took place in France and Istanbul. The European locale added another layer of mystery and danger to those films, and allowed the stories to be a bit more forgiving of the fact that there are seemingly no consequences for the large-scale death and destruction Mills always leaves in his wake. In this film there is literally a “we’re good?” moment with the LA police—did they forget the traffic accidents, reckless behavior, exploding buildings, resisting arrest, murder and other numerous other charges?! It seems easier to forget/forgive this if you just assume that Mills leaves the country afterwards, with the local authorities none-the-wiser as to who was responsible.

But speaking of all that mayhem, that is where this movie excels and gives fans of the franchise what they want to see. Taken 3 is broken up into three acts, each more action-packed than the previous. The first act is somewhat slow as we learn about where the characters are at since the last film—Mills’ ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) is having marital problems with her new husband Stuart (Dougray Scott), and his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) has some news she’s not ready to share with her father. Then the murder happens and in the second act we get Mills on the run with the cops after him as he tries to figure out who has set him up and puts together a plan. And in the final bloody, highly-entertaining, action-packed final act, Mills seeks out his justice. There are a lot of great action sequences in the film, particularly in the second two acts—car chases, shootouts, buildings blowing up, a unique use of an elevator, and Bryan Mills just taking charge and kicking butt. Oleg Malankov (Sam Spurell) is an excellent adversary for Mills, and their fight scene is amazing. There are a lot of deleted scenes with Malankov on the Blu-ray bonus features. It would have been great if they had expanded his role in the film, because he is an interesting baddie and I would have liked to see more of his story.

This is likely the final adventure for Bryan Mills, but if he were to come back, I would love to see a purely-action film, perhaps one revolving around Mills and his 3 CIA pals off on some secret mission abroad.

The Blu-ray looks and sounds great. The fast-moving action sequences and slower dramatic scenes look equally as crisp and clear throughout the film. Dialogue is clear, and the action on screen is enhanced by a 360-degree audio experience that also makes great use of the subwoofer.

In addition to a Digital HD copy of the film (which can be redeemed via iTunes, Ultraviolet or Google Play), the Blu-ray also contains 7 minutes of deleted scenes, a 3-minute 3D-rendered tour of Sam’s bunker and gadgets, and 9 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews.

The Blu-ray contains two cuts of the film—the original theatrical version and an unrated cut that runs about 6 minutes longer. For the purposes of this review, I watched the unrated cut—I suspect the additional footage is mostly added to the film’s bloody final act.









What’s Included:

Film: (Theatrical 1:48:57, Unrated 1:55:18)

    Blu-ray:

    • 1080p / Widescreen 2.39:1
    • Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Descriptive Audio 5.1 (Theatrical Version Only), Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1
    • Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish

    Digital Copy (Redemption Deadline 4/21/2018):

    • Digital HD Copy of Theatrical Version redeemable via iTunes, Flixster (UltraViolet), Google Play or Vudu (UltraViolet)

Extras:

  • Deleted Scene – “Flashback Malankov” (7:16)
    This is a collection of deleted scenes featuring Malankov—the first shows him single-handedly taking out a camp full of men in the Middle East, while the others show him taking care of his business operations, and threatening Stuart. Some of these scenes have strange, almost dialogue-less audio but otherwise full soundtracks.
  • Sam’s Bunker A.K.A. The Rabbit Hole (3:01)
    Sam provides narration over 3D renderings of his bunker and the various gadgets contained within. Play All or select from “Data Extractor”, “Mobile Computer”, “Beretta M9 92FS”, “Micro Lapel Camera”, “Jamming Device”, “Serum and Antidote”, “Smoke Grenade”, “In-Ear Communicator” and “Lock Pick”.
  • Taken to L.A. (4:16)
    In this short behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film, director Olivier Megaton and stars Liam Neeson (“Brian Mills”) and Maggie Grace (“Kim”) discuss the film’s Los Angeles setting.
  • A Taken Legacy (4:54)
    The cast and director talk about working with these characters over the past 8 years, taking the franchise to a new level, and about how Brian Mills’ motivation has always been protecting his family at all costs. Includes interviews with director Olivier Megaton and cast members Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Forest Whitaker (“Franck Dotzler”) and Leland Orser (“Sam”).
  • Gallery (1:05)
    Manually step through this collection of 12 production photos, or let them auto-advance every 5 seconds.
  • Theatrical Trailer (2:15)
  • Sneak Peek (11:17)
    Play All or select from trailers for Discover Digial HD, Spy, The Marine 4: Moving Target, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Taken Franchise, Sons of Anarchy Season 7, Unfinished Business and Homeland Season 4.

 


Final Thoughts:

My Rating
Film:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Worth a Look

Taken 3 starts off a bit slow, but has some excellent action sequences, and a solid final act. While I’m a huge fan of the original film, it felt like something was lacking this time around—some of that may be due to the domestic setting of this third film. Die-hard fans of the franchise will appreciate the solid Blu-ray presentation and nice, but minimal, bonus features. Others may consider a rental first, or certainly check out the original Taken film if you haven’t seen it yet, because it’s excellent!