← Back to Reviews
in
#588 - Taken 2
Olivier Megaton, 2012
After killing a gang of human traffickers in order to rescue his daughter, a security consultant and his family are targeted by the father of one of the men he killed.
I was not too kind to the original Taken when I reviewed it. As charming as I generally find Liam Neeson, he was far and away the best part of a rather clunky excuse for a modern action film. That being said, I wonder if I might have been a bit harsh on it, though that reaction was prompted less by re-thinking my feelings towards the film itself and more in relation to the incredible shortcomings of its follow-up, Taken 2. The original film had a serviceable if none-too-original high concept in its tale of a highly-skilled security consultant tracking down the men who kidnapped his daughter, but a sequel involving the exact same circumstances seemed a little too improbable even for an action movie as uncomplicated as this one. So they went with the next best thing - a revenge plot. This time, as Neeson works towards rebuilding his relationships with his ex-wife (Famke Janssen) and daughter (Maggie Grace) while the trio are on holiday in Istanbul, they are targeted by an Albanian gangster (Rade Šerbedžija) and his organisation. It turns out that Šerbedžija is the father of one of the traffickers that Neeson murdered in the first film, so naturally he wants revenge.
While a revenge plot is arguably more plausible than having Grace's character get kidnapped again, there's no denying that it feels incredibly flimsy. The gimmick of having Neeson and Janssen be the ones who get kidnapped for a change seems promising (especially when it means that Grace is forced to bail out Neeson for a change), but it barely goes anywhere. The original film never really made any promise of being particularly deep in terms of writing or thematic content, but it seems considerably more complex in comparison to this awfully lightweight sequel. There were issues with Taken that I had hoped might have been addressed in this film, but no such luck. Some lip service is paid to the futility of the cycle of revenge unfolding between Neeson and Šerbedžija but it's never adequately developed or expanded upon, thus all the villains in this film end up being one-dimensional crooks. The heroic characters don't fare much better. Neeson is still the same character that see-saws between gruff killing machine and awkward yet caring family man as the plot demands, while Janssen essentially becomes the film's latest damsel in distress after sharing a couple of warm reconciliatory scenes with Neeson. Grace is still supposed to be a pretty ordinary young woman, though to the film's credit she does actually get to do something in this movie as the sole non-captured member of the family, even if it does amount to following Neeson's instructions.
Unfortunately, Taken 2 doesn't even deliver on the action front either. In the original film, Neeson's character quite famously stated that he has a very particular set of skills, but between that film and this one it's clear that this does not translate to varied action. The scale may be increased, but the thrills are even more rare. This can easily be credited to the direction, where every modern action/thriller flaw is featured (especially those that were already found in Taken, yet are exacerbated here). The combination of jittery cinematography and rapid cross-cutting not only fails to add any excitement, it is actively disorienting and alienating. One barely gets a sense of place or direction at times, which is probably just as well as the film speeds along before you have time to question certain plot contrivances; of course, that's probably because you're busy questioning the more obvious contrivances that exist to extend the film's running time. Neeson ends up being as competent or incompetent as the story needs him to be in this context and even glosses over some of his more ridiculous acts (such as needlessly sending a speeding car flying into an embassy filled with soldiers). Between the incredibly weak plotting and the poorly-captured action, Taken 2 is a mess of a film that threatens to tarnish what little goodwill the original film earned and wastes what little potential it might have had to stand out on its own terms.
Olivier Megaton, 2012
After killing a gang of human traffickers in order to rescue his daughter, a security consultant and his family are targeted by the father of one of the men he killed.
I was not too kind to the original Taken when I reviewed it. As charming as I generally find Liam Neeson, he was far and away the best part of a rather clunky excuse for a modern action film. That being said, I wonder if I might have been a bit harsh on it, though that reaction was prompted less by re-thinking my feelings towards the film itself and more in relation to the incredible shortcomings of its follow-up, Taken 2. The original film had a serviceable if none-too-original high concept in its tale of a highly-skilled security consultant tracking down the men who kidnapped his daughter, but a sequel involving the exact same circumstances seemed a little too improbable even for an action movie as uncomplicated as this one. So they went with the next best thing - a revenge plot. This time, as Neeson works towards rebuilding his relationships with his ex-wife (Famke Janssen) and daughter (Maggie Grace) while the trio are on holiday in Istanbul, they are targeted by an Albanian gangster (Rade Šerbedžija) and his organisation. It turns out that Šerbedžija is the father of one of the traffickers that Neeson murdered in the first film, so naturally he wants revenge.
While a revenge plot is arguably more plausible than having Grace's character get kidnapped again, there's no denying that it feels incredibly flimsy. The gimmick of having Neeson and Janssen be the ones who get kidnapped for a change seems promising (especially when it means that Grace is forced to bail out Neeson for a change), but it barely goes anywhere. The original film never really made any promise of being particularly deep in terms of writing or thematic content, but it seems considerably more complex in comparison to this awfully lightweight sequel. There were issues with Taken that I had hoped might have been addressed in this film, but no such luck. Some lip service is paid to the futility of the cycle of revenge unfolding between Neeson and Šerbedžija but it's never adequately developed or expanded upon, thus all the villains in this film end up being one-dimensional crooks. The heroic characters don't fare much better. Neeson is still the same character that see-saws between gruff killing machine and awkward yet caring family man as the plot demands, while Janssen essentially becomes the film's latest damsel in distress after sharing a couple of warm reconciliatory scenes with Neeson. Grace is still supposed to be a pretty ordinary young woman, though to the film's credit she does actually get to do something in this movie as the sole non-captured member of the family, even if it does amount to following Neeson's instructions.
Unfortunately, Taken 2 doesn't even deliver on the action front either. In the original film, Neeson's character quite famously stated that he has a very particular set of skills, but between that film and this one it's clear that this does not translate to varied action. The scale may be increased, but the thrills are even more rare. This can easily be credited to the direction, where every modern action/thriller flaw is featured (especially those that were already found in Taken, yet are exacerbated here). The combination of jittery cinematography and rapid cross-cutting not only fails to add any excitement, it is actively disorienting and alienating. One barely gets a sense of place or direction at times, which is probably just as well as the film speeds along before you have time to question certain plot contrivances; of course, that's probably because you're busy questioning the more obvious contrivances that exist to extend the film's running time. Neeson ends up being as competent or incompetent as the story needs him to be in this context and even glosses over some of his more ridiculous acts (such as needlessly sending a speeding car flying into an embassy filled with soldiers). Between the incredibly weak plotting and the poorly-captured action, Taken 2 is a mess of a film that threatens to tarnish what little goodwill the original film earned and wastes what little potential it might have had to stand out on its own terms.