I’m kinda done with Luc Besson. I’ve seen your car chases; I’ve seen your path of destruction; I’ve seen your violence. I’ve seen them a lot. I’m good. Thank you. We have a winner. No more callers.
There’s nothing quite like the warped morality of a Taken film – the idea is, consistently, that a wronged man is entitled to immunity from all laws. In this franchise, that idea is so universal and abused, I think it includes the law of gravity as well. Our hero, for lack of a better word, is given a carte blanche on all societal ill he causes. “It’s ok,” we reason to ourselves, “he’s been wronged. He gets to do this.” The irony in Taken 3 (for the love of Patty Hearst, people, what is wrong with the word “kidnapped?”) is that while the police are chasing after the wronged Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), Detective Dotzler (Forest Whitaker) actually warns Bryan about the path he travels, as if to imply immunity from crime is not applicable in this case. HA! Have you guys watched a Taken film? In the best one, he shoots a police lieutenant’s very innocent wife in cold blood, in her apartment, while she’s serving him dinner. There are no consequences here; there are never any consequences here. It’s the friggin’ American dream. Oh, don’t you worry, the Los Angeles police force has no intention of penalizing Bryan Mills for the mayhem he causes – not for the garage explosion, the campus panic or the multiple cop car/civilian/big rig pile up on the surprisingly empty I10. It’s ok, he’s been wronged.
The trouble begins when Bryan comes home to a dead ex- (Famke Janssen) in his bed. He foils the arrest by busting heads and taking off through the projects. This is the only part of the film I found realistic – I do believe this paranoid overprotective destruction expert would actually have an escape route plan and a safe house in tact just in case, 
say, he ever had to flee the police. Sure, the key move in the escape is straight out of The Fugitive, but I hate to quibble with the only thing I’d been enjoying.
Now why Bryan is being framed and why Bryan thinks he’s better off on the lam than pleading his case are not well explained. But I can live with that. What truly bugs me is Bryan puts an entire college campus on lockdown so he can say “hi” to his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) and after that, he deliberately gets caught and smashes up the freeway –yeah, nobody gets hurt in a high speed police chase, doncha know?—all so he can collect one insignificant clue.
When it comes down to it, that doesn’t bug me, either, comparatively. What really digs at me in Taken 3 is the scene where big bad Bryan waterboards his ex-wife’s husband, Stuart (Dougray Scott). Sure, that’s gonna pique a few fantasies. What man doesn’t want to waterboard the man his wife runs off with? And yet, we’re going through a period of history in which our country has utilized torture and claimed moral high ground in the same sentence. That doesn’t jive – and every artist on the planet knows it, or should know it. And here we are with a “good” man using torture. I’m not sure which is worse – the decision to torture, the matter-of-fact nature of the torture (it’s not a big moment or a necessary one and is never referred to again – is this where we are as a people? As a culture? Somebody can be tortured without anybody saying, “boo?”) or that the torture itself not only proves effective, but the most effective tool for leading to speedy and relatively benevolent plot resolution. No consequences at all.
This isn’t “24.” That’s bullshit and you know it. We had not one, but two films this past year about men tortured in Japanese WWII prison camps. So, what? It’s not ok when they do it, but it’s ok with Bryan? He’s a good guy. And what exactly does this “good guy” have to offer, anyway? His wife left him. His perfectly capable daughter is grown and making a life. You want to flee arrest? Show me a reason your freedom is worth preserving – so you can torture guys? Yeah, that’s fantastic. You go, girlfriend.
The El Lay fuzz might be mistaken
Bryan’s escapes leave SoCal shaken
With carnage trail
Justice is fail
Resolution? I’m thrice not “Taken”
Rated PG-13, 109 Minutes
D: Oliver Megaton
W: Luc Besson & Robert Mark Kamen
Genre: Liam Neeson ruins things
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: The wronged and violent
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Pacifists, realists, anybody with a sense of humility or humanity
