Take It Away

Review: Taken 2
 

Taken 2, aka Taken Again, aka The Retakening. Whatever you want to call it, Liam Neeson's expert CIA operative Brian Mills is back, once again facing a ruthless gang of kidnappers. This time it is personal on both sides of the gunfire, as the families of the sex-traffickers Mills killed last time set out in revenge to kidnap the entire Mills family.

The first Taken quiety opened in January of 2009 before exploding into a worldwide hit, powered by fantastic word-of-mouth to the tune of $226.8 million. It was a film that surprised everyone by how exciting and fresh it seemed. Taken definitely remains among one of my favorite films.

 

Taken 2 is nowhere close to being as good as the first film. Entirely formulaic and predictable, Taken 2 runs Brian Mills around Istanbul, but never really has him do anything of significance. In an attempt to evolve the franchise, Taken 2 also tries to make a hero out of Mills' daughter, Kim, but her exploits are entirely laughable.

 

Admittedly, Neeson (Schindler's List, Les Miserables) brings the same seriousness he brings to every role and at age 60 is still impressive as a headlining star. Meanwhile, Maggie Grace (Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Lockout) as Kim and Famke Janssen (X-Men, GoldenEye) as Mills' wife both give an earnest effort, but Grace - despite being insanely hot - is simply unbelievable as a heroine and Janssen is boring as the damsel in distress.

 

The action too is passable, but simply nothing that brings an audience to the edges of their seats.

 

Ultimately, Taken 2 lacks the originality, the tension, the momentum, and the overall sensation of the first Taken. "There's nothing here that wasn't already accomplished better the first time around" (Todd Jorgenson).

 

Despite enthusiastic direction from Olivier Megaton (Colombiana, Transporter 3), it certainly seems as though veteran action-film writer Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, Leon: The Proffesional) was simply going through the motions with his screenplay to simply cash a check without regard to respecting the characters and story he originally created.

 

If Taken 2 were not a Taken film, it would not have been amazing, but would still have been a decent action movie worth a dollar at a Red Box. But as a sequel which is essentially the antithesis of the original, a viewing of Taken 2 only serves to cheapen the first movie.

 

I'm sure the next time I watch Taken I will enjoy it, but I'll still be thinking, "This is cool now, but remember all that stupid stuff that happens to them a couple years later?"

 

There are much better action films out there than Taken 2, so I would reccommend watching those. Except few of them have such impressive origins, so, better yet, just watch Taken again. And let's all just quietly ignore that Taken 2 exists and hope it goes away before it permanently damages the stellar reputation of the first Taken.

 

The Final Word: Don't even bother.