Review of Taken (2008) by Aron R — 14 Jun 2014

Liam Neeson is an undeniable bad ass mother fucker, and he's great here. Unfortunately, despite Neeson's A+ performance, the film itself suffers from lack of creativity and originality. It's concerned with getting from point A to point B as quickly as possible to showcase Neeson's awesomeness. Unfortunately, what's lost here is actual plot. The first act is meant to show Neeson's motivation and background, which it does, but not that spectacularly. He has a daughter who is...well I guess pretty typical. He loves her...whatever. There's honestly nothing special going on there.

In a lot of ways, Taken is similar to Man on Fire, suffering and succeeding in many of the same areas. What Taken fails to do that MoF succeeds in, is creating a story before the actual kidnapping occurs. MoF creates a great bond in its first hour which drives the next hour of action-plot-whateverness. Granted, Taken is a much shorter film and meant to be much more direct with it's point. I did appreciate Taken's protagonist's actions in his journey to find what was lost more than Man on Fire's though. lolwut? whatever.

Update: Film kinda sucked more the second time.