Transporter 3

Transporter 3– 2008

 ** Out of ****

The Transporter movies have never been grounded in reality, but up until now, at least they were grounded in the realm of fun. With the third instalment, new director Olivier Megaton fails to reach the heights of the second; and has created a bland and curiously empty entry.

I am not what you would call a fan of the Transporter series; the first was dumb to a delirious extent, and the second while unbelievable incorporated more frequent action as well as a plot far too creative for what a film of such ilk deserved. Transporter 3 drops the distinguishing characteristics from both its predecessors; it is not overtly dumb, but nor does it have any semblance of a plot. After my first take I was under the impression that the story was too complex to decipher coherently, yet as I thought about it more I realized the plot was in fact so faint, it was ghostly.

In movies like this, an inherent problem is the plot is shoved back-seat and held hostage to action, with the storyline simply stringing along the carnage. But in this film there are only 4 action sequences, involving: a chase on a bike, a hand-to-hand fight that would make a stripper envious, a car chase with two semi-trailers and the 'climax'. These sequences can't take up more then 25 minutes of the running time which by the way clocks in at a far too beefy 100 minutes. As such, we are left with a sans plot flick, light on action and the resulting product is less then engrossing.

As we always do, we meet up with Frank Martin (Jason Statham), this time vacationing in Marseilles, fishing with his long-time friend Inspector Tarconi (Francois Berleand). After an accident involving another transporter thrusts Frank back into career mode, he is unwillingly absconded by Prison Break's T-Bag, Robert Knepper as a sinister business man with a hidden agenda and adds some much needed spunk to the film. Ordered to drive a red-headed and mysterious Russian beauty across the country, Frank tries to determine who his girl is and why she is so important. It turns out that she is the leverage to persuade her father, who is a Ukrainian government official, to turn a blind eye to the unlawful import of toxic waste into the country. But alas, over the course of their journey, Frank begins to fall for the damsel in distress and must make a choice between tarnishing his 100% delivery rate and saving his lady love.

That essentially summarizes the plot; Frank must deliver the girl at the time immediately after her father signs the necessary legal papers. All that is left is an erratic road trip film, with its players simply going through the motions. Along with being neither interesting nor engaging, the journey is made much more unpleasant by first time actress Natalya Rudakova who plays the daughter. I am not going to fault her for giving a sub-par performance, as it was Megaton's choice to cast her, but I will doubly fault the director for making her character utterly obnoxious and un-likable.

Most of the fight sequences (when they finally occur) are handled with the same unique flair of the previous films, but others like the semi-trailer chase seems cheaply shot, like the director used amateur affects such as speeding up the film to make the cars appear faster (I'm not sure if he did, that's just how it came off to me). Jason Statham grounds the film like always and has all the cool charisma and balding dome you could want. Unfortunately the movie as a whole does not deliver the same gravitas as its star, and if Frank Martin's adventures become much more non-descript, we will end up following his adventures working as a UPS driver sporting a beer belly and a handlebar moustache.