I liked the original Transporter…. And Transporter 3 felt like they were trying to return to the original movies concept…And they mostly succeeded.

I would rate this a 7 out of 10, with the Original Transporter a 8.5, and Transporter 2 being a 6.

If you saw the first two movies, excuse me for a second while I try to explain what I mean. The original Transporter movie had stunts, and martial arts, but it was almost completely believable. With Frank Martin behind the wheel, you could just bring that “extra edge” to the driving, etc, that made the Car “that much better”.

Transporter 2 in comparison had some good stunts in it, but the Car stunts were “Magic”. You just couldn’t believe that you could do those stunts in real life, without preparation and setup. For example, knocking a bomb off, the bottom of a car, by jumping between building, and flipping the car just right to have the crane knock the bomb off.

Transporter 3 returns to the “more realistic” approach, the only flaw that I saw was that editing of the movie was very frantic, especially in the Martial Arts scenes… Cut, Cut, Cut, Cut, SlowMo, Cut, Cut, etc..

I prefer my Martial Arts to be visible… I like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Michelle Yoeh, etc… I hate how it has to be motion blurred, seen from 14 angles at the same time…

The plot was a little weak here and there, but nothing jumped out and nagged me about it. Of course, it’s a Martial Arts / Action Adventure movie, so the plot is at least slightly less important then the fight scenes…

Overall, if you liked the first, you’ll probably enjoy the 3rd.
If not, let me know why….

Plot Summary:

Frank Martin (Jason Statham) has been pressured into transporting a package, together with Valentina (Natalya Rudakova), the kidnapped daughter of Leonid Vasilev (Jeroen Krabbe); as it turns out later, the objective is to deliver her. Both have a device attached to their wrist which will explode if the person concerned goes more than 75 feet from the car. Vasilev is the head of the Environmental Protection Agency for Ukraine. Frank Martin must travel from Marseille through Munich and Budapest until he ends up in Odessa on the Black Sea. With the help of Inspector Tarconi (François Berléand), Frank must contend with the people who strong-armed him into taking the job, agents sent by the Ukraine government to intercept him, and the general non-cooperation of his passenger.

Valentina thinks she is going to die, and consumes drugs and alcohol to feel better and have some fun for the last time. Frank is not happy with this, because both have to remain sharp. However, Frank and Valentina fall for each other, while escaping from one life-threatening situation after another. Statham again drives an armored Audi A8 W12 in the film. (Summary from Wikipedia)