Review of Taken 2 (2012) by Maineutral R — 11 May 2014

Liam Neeson was not one of my favorite stars. My first time seeing him was in Star Wars Episode I, and he was largely forgettable, except when his character died. After that, he appeared in several other movies, but none to catch my attention. It wasn't until 2008's Taken when I suddenly became a fan of him. Since then, he has always represented a huge relief in almost every movie he appears in. When I heard there was a Taken sequel in the works, I got excited, cause Liam Neeson would be back kickin' some serious ass. Unfortunately, Taken 2 it's just an average action movie with no new stuff and wreckless action scenes.

The story is simple: Bryan's ex-wife is captured by the fathers of those that Bryan killed in the first movie. The rest is pretty much the same of what we saw in 2008: Bryan finds out, Bryan kicks asses and Bryan triumphs. The same plot with a different woman, but without the same pacing; this one simply has long "happening" scenes without any story being developed from them or in the meantime. While the concept is the same, the execution is not. This time, Bryan and his daughter (again played by Maggie Grace from the first film) do a kind-of team up in the movie's second act, and while it gets interesting, it isn't AS interesting as the sequences from the first movie, and even so, this act is preceded by a "seen-it" first act and followed by a "seen-it" third act; pretty much caught in-between like a sandwich, one that doesn't taste good. Liam is still as reliable as ever nevertheless.

But that's another problem: his character kicks several asses, but all in action scenes shot by people who can't make the camera stand still for even one second, in scenarios selected by people that don't know a thing about good lighting. The action scenes are composed by a lot of quick cuts, close-ups and shaky cam, all in a murky lighting for the most part, making everything barely understandable; God helps us if we watch it on Fullscreen version. And it doesn't help that those scenes are accompanied by forgettable musical score by Nathaniel Méchaly, where the most calmed clues are played during the action scenes and the more up-beat clues are played during the dialogue or sneaking-around scenes; the film is just a huge mash-up of wrecked action scenes and thin story. Shameful composition.

Taken 2 borrows from the first movie but never manages to be as enjoyable. The first one was fun and exhilarating, this one it's just an average action flick. It may entertain some; it even got me, but never all the way, just some jumpy moments. Take note: Taken 2 is crap, and not even Liam Neeson and his kickin' ass abilities can save it, or find it, or kill it.