The problem with Hollywood

When you see as many movies per year as I do you start to recognize repeating trends which include for the most part, how the Hollywood movie machine works.

I just got back from the 3rd movie in the Taken series and overall it was a pretty bad movie. The first Taken was a great movie and it was great because the script was great, the action was great and the father daughter relationship and how he saved her at the end of the movie was also great. The 2nd Taken movie was just average because the producers knew that all they had to do to make a great deal of money was to make another movie where someone is Taken. This is the problem with Hollywood and some of the movies they make - money over quality.

The 3rd movie Taken 3 was just a bad movie. The story made no sense at all, and the plot was so bad they actually had to explain the movie at the end of the movie, showing hidden pieces of action that were not shown before or details that would be impossible for anyone to know. The idea behind this story and the entire plot was insane, downright ridiculous. Why did this happen? Because they knew they had a guarantee of a certain amount of money because of the interest in the first two movies, so they concentrated on all the money they were going to make and completely forgot about the most important thing of all, the screenplay! I have seen this so many times over the years, most especially the Die Hard franchise which had 5 movies in the series, the last one so bad that it was almost impossible to sit through. It's a rare thing that a sequel is better than the original movie and exception to this rule would be The Godfather 2 and Aliens, the sequel to Alien. Godfather 3 was another example of trying to make money over quality because Godfather 3 was not a good movie. This is an ongoing trend for all Franchise movies and I don't see it ever ending. Of course you have to make money to continue to make movies, but don't forget about a great story a great screenplay because ultimately that is why we all go to movies, to be entertained, to be engrossed and inspired. It seems in Hollywood when money is your main goal, more often than not, the movie is just plain bad.

Unfortunately Taken 3, which is supposed to the last movie in the Taken Franchise, wrecked the franchise because in my opinion that is how bad this movie was.