Taken 2 Review

Taken 3 is currently in theaters, and since I have no intention of wasting money to see it, why don't I review the previous entry in the trilogy, Taken 2. 

While the first Taken film had its moments, it did not impress me nearly as much as it did others. Considering how terribly Taken 2 was received by critics, my expectations were incredibly low, and, surprisingly, Taken 2 did not turn out quite as bad as expected.

Directed by: Olivier Megaton
Genre: Action, Thriller,
Release Date: 5 October 2012
Running Time: 91 minutes
MMPA rating: PG-13

The Good: Liam Neeson is epic as always, A few fun action scenes, Maggie Grace is not nearly as annoying as expected,

The Bad: Various dumb choices by the characters, Clichés, Missed multiple chances for an epically awesome line, Too much shaky-cam,

Plot: 2.2/10- Taken 2’s plot is expectedly poorly written and full of holes. For one, the simple fact that the Mills family (other than Bryan) would even leave the country is just kind of stupid considering what happened in the previous movie but, of course, we would not have a movie without their stupid decisions. Aside from that, the somewhat slow buildup to the action was actually a lot more entertaining than I had expected, although that is not to say that it was a good by any means, just not as bad.

Characterization: 4.0/10- Bryan Mills is still a cool character. There might not have much depth to the character, but he is at least entertaining to watch. Maggie Grace's character, Kim, was given more to do in film, and she was not nearly as annoying as I had expected. With that said, there are still the incredibly retarded things that the character does, and if you have seen the movie, you know exactly what I am talking about.

Action: 6.5/10- The action is a mixed bag. Some of the action sequences are good, while others have so much shaky-cam to the point where the audience has no idea what the heck is going on. However, the car chase sequence was fun to watch and mostly well filmed.

Neeson points his gun at people a lot.

Acting: 5.4/10- Liam Neeson is epic as always, even though he has much less to do in the movie than the previous one. As stated previously, Maggie Grace was not as annoying as expected, but her performance was far from good, and Famke Janssen wasn't bad either. On the other hand, the actors that played the antagonists all gave flat and clichéd performances.

Special effects: N/A- While the movie is not particularly effects heavy, there is one scene where a car explodes and it looks horribly fake!

Soundtrack: 5.0/10- The score was barely memorable, but never felt out of place.

Humor: 7.0/10- Liam Neeson's witty quips are often humorous, but that’s about it.

Entertainment Value: 5.0/10- Despite all of the problems, the few scenes of Liam Neeson kicking butt are entertaining.

Overall: 5.0/10- The best way to describe Taken 2 is that it is not that bad of a movie. Then again, it is far from a good movie. Overall, it is just a dumb and unremarkable action flick with Liam Neeson doing what he always does.

Closing comments: My thought after watching the movie was literally: “Well, it could have been worse,” and I think that sums up Taken 2. However, if you actually paid to see this movie, your outlook would probably be a lot more negative.

Recommended for: Liam Neeson fans, Fans of Taken 1,

For a superior recent Liam Neeson flick, check out my review of Non-Stop by clicking here.

Click here to check out more of my movie reviews.

More gunpointing.

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