Taken (2008) and the Taken Franchise

I wrote reviews of all three on here, but let me put it this way - I gave the original a and it's still my favourite of the three.

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I like the first one, and kind of like the the third, but kind of not. Don't like the second one. The third I somewhat appreciate for having the guts to kill off a certain character, which a sequel like that would not normally want to do, and I like the twist with the villain, which I also found to be a breath of fresh air.

But third does have it's share of silly over the top moments that bring it down. The problem I have with the second one, is that I found Brian Mills to not be the same character. For example, in the bathhouse, he chooses to give up his gun, in favor of a fistfight, when the Mills from the original would have just shot the guy, and I found the character to change to be not believable. He does that a couple of other times in the movie, showing a little more mercy than before, which I didn't buy.

Also the situations were just too over the top, such as Maggie being able to learn how to drive very well so quickly and all.

First 1 and two was brilliant
3rd wasn't needed milking that dead poor cow. And having 25 camera cuts jumping over the fence when Liam is on the run after his wife in the house

Taken 1 was enjoyable on the first viewing in the theatre. I then tried rewatching it a few times, and it wasn't the same. It's just an okay movie.

The sequels were terrible. Overall, an extremely overrated franchise.

I actually didn't like the first Taken when it came out, and thought it was completely overrated and just an uninspired redoing of Spartan (2004). But then later I saw the Taken sequels, and thought they were so much worse, that they made me appreciate the first one, and now I feel I was too hard on it. Like the first one, but not the sequels.

I enjoyed Taken. I believed it was an enjoyable action film with memorable moments, although, I didn't love it. Taken 2, on the other-hand, I found awful. I thought to myself, how could they do a worse job on 3, ... and they did.

I actually thought 3 was better than 2, but didn't like either much. The thing I hated about Taken 2 is how Brian Mills would point a gun at a the bad guy, and then the bad guy would point a gun at him and they just stand their pointing and no one shoots. Drives me nuts, and the Mills in the first movie would have just shot them.