It shouldn’t come as such a surprise that “Taken 3,” the third installment of the reputable “Taken” series, was a complete waste of cinema. Given the incredibly low Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score (10 percent), any experienced moviegoer would know not to expect much from this movie, or even go so far as to put aside an hour and a half of their lives to see the film. Curiosity, however, has a way of encouraging movie critics to walk through the movie theater doors, as is the case with me.

The basic premise of “Taken 3” is that former operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is accused of murdering his ex-wife Lenore, who happened to be meeting Neeson’s character at his place for bagels when she was killed. The CIA, FBI and police are all after him, and he is forced to yet again use his now infamous “particular set of skills” to clear his name. Though almost everyone assumes that he is guilty, his daughter remains his only asset (she never doubts his innocence, not even for a moment). Together they work with Lenore’s husband, Stuart, to take down the Russian mastermind Oleg Malankov, who purportedly is responsible for Lenore’s demise.

“Taken 3” was a failure in that it unknowingly made fun of itself; its serious tone was never truly achieved because of the outright stupidity of the storyline. Not even Neeson’s stoicism and all around good acting could make up for the ridiculousness of the plot. At one point, Bryan finds himself in the midst of a crazy car chase sequence, which isn’t an altogether new stunt for action-adventure movies. What was comical was that a tractor-trailer with a large storage box in the back started to roll forward, and for absolutely no good reason. It somehow gained enough momentum (given that for some reason or another, the storage box wasn’t firmly secured to the trailer in the first place) to roll seven times, wreaking havoc and smashing cars along the way. “Taken 3” couldn’t even attempt to make that kind of action seem necessary.

Then there was the problem of the villain, predictably a Russian, who was so horribly crafted that his extreme maniacal behavior was horrendously over done. In one scene, when we first meet Oleg, he is looking through the viewfinder of a sniper rifle at two girls playing tennis. He contemplates shooting them, but is interrupted in the middle of his thought when one of his henchmen starts conversing with him. That kind of nonchalance isn’t threatening—it’s laughable. What’s even worse is that the ultimate showdown between Bryan and the Russian psychopath is waged when Oleg is in his tighty whities. That was the last straw—in that moment it was obvious that “Taken 3,” though intended to maintain a serious tone in an epic battle between the beloved Bryan and despicable Oleg, had actually become a comedy. The filmmakers didn’t know it at the time, but I would swear that SNL had the entire film rigged so as to end the “Taken” trilogy with a truly memorable finale.

All too often, so it would seem, money speaks louder than the artistic integrity of the work itself. Although most people could probably sense that a third “Taken” movie would be wholly unnecessary, and most likely poorly written, it never seems to matter; as long as money is made, movies that should never have been made are nevertheless pumped out. If no original, interesting ideas come to mind (even after considerable thought is given to a script) then it doesn’t make sense to fall back on storylines that have been used over and over again, recycled and rehashed until the end of time.

“Taken 3,” to put it bluntly, was not written very well, could not be acted out in a believable way because of the poor writing and could not continue to entertain the viewer because of its predictability. “Taken” was interesting to watch even if it was anticipated at times because it was executed very well for what it was. “Taken 3,” however, having exhausted every possible storyline, does nothing for the actors, the writers, the viewers or anyone else. The only thing this movie can be given credit for is its ability to give its viewers a false sense of hope that there might be another somewhat intriguing, if not only entertaining, “Taken” movie. We all know that that didn’t happen, but we can at the very least hope that “Taken 3” is actually the last installment in the “Taken” series.