Alternative Culture: Taken 3 Review

World's most wanted?
Having watched Taken and Taken 2, I could not wait to watch Taken 3. The premise of the movie takes retired CIA agent Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) on a race to prove his innocence after he is framed for the death of his ex-wife.

Chased by Inspector Dotzler (Forest Whitaker), Mills has to throw the cops of his trail while he interrogates the murder suspects.

Theological issues
This, being a theological site, will focus on certain issues raised by the movie. The issue I want to examine here is on the investigation and the run from the authorities.

Truth claims
Whereas Inspector Dotzler is interested in finding out the truth of the matter, most of the police were content to see Mills as guilty, most evident by their interactions with Mill's daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). Unfortunately, for most people (whether believers or not) rather be not investigate truth claims too carefully lest it challenges what they deeply believe in.

After if Jesus claimed to be "the way, truth and the life" in John 14:6, why should Christians be afraid of examining the claims of Christianity?

Versus the world
Jesus predicted the following for his followers:

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." (John 15: 18-19)

Like Mills on the run from the authorities, Christians should not be surprised if the world tends to reject them. That does not mean Christians should knowingly and purposely violate secular law to prove a point, but rather that their lifestyle and truth claims would tend to offend people around them.

My review
To be honest, this movie was decent. It was definitely not as good as Taken, but comparable to Taken 2. The lack of twist and turns of plot made me miss the first Taken, and the lack of a nationwide search for Mills really hampered the urgency of the story. I thought it might have been better if the French intelligence from the first movie tried to take revenge on Mills (or demand extradition), and then Mills would be on the run.

Nevertheless, Neeson's gruff acting and the action scenes were the movie's saving grace. I give this movie a 60/100.