Taken 3

The 2014 trilogy-closer moves the action to Los Angeles and shifts genres entirely, becoming a wrong-man thriller rather than a rescue mission. When Bryan Mills's ex-wife Lenore is found murdered in his apartment, Mills becomes the prime suspect and must evade both the police and the real killers to clear his name. Forest Whitaker plays the LAPD detective pursuing Mills, and the cat-and-mouse dynamic between the two is the film's strongest element. Olivier Megaton returns as director, and the LA setting gives the film a different visual palette from the European locations of the first two. The problem is that Taken's core appeal, Mills's particular set of skills deployed against clear villains, is diluted by the wrong-man structure. Mills spends too much time running and not enough time being the terrifyingly competent operator the audience came to see. Neeson remains convincing, but the film feels like a franchise running on fumes.