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Wednesday, January 14, 2015

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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14 comments:

  1. I think your lowered expectations helped! I hated Taken 2! The shaky cam, of which you mention, rendered the action chaotic, confusing and irritating. Olivier Megaton is an awful action director. Alas, mega-shaky-cam confusion continues in the 3rd!

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    1. I seriously expected this to be one of the worst movies ever, so my expectations were definitely low.

      -James

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  2. Great review! :) Too bad Liam Nesson can't do more variety in his acting work(but then, it seems like he was type cast, which is all too common in the business).

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    1. I actually watched an interview with him about his action movie career. I think it was on 60 Minutes, but it was interesting. He doesn't seem to mind being an action hero late in his career, although he said he wished he could done those movies when he was younger.

      -James

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  3. Taken 2 sucked for me. My expectations were too high and when Kim started throwing live grenades into public (for really no reason), the movie died in my eyes.

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    1. I honestly expected this to be one of the worst movies of all-time, and it was THAT terrible, so I guess it surpassed my expectations.

      -James

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  4. I didn't care for the first movie, so won't bother with these. But I introduced a friend to the movie "Spartan" a couple days ago, and I realized that it was basically a way better (and earlier) version of "Taken," only instead of the dad going after the girl, it was a Ranger (Val Kilmer, in peak form). If you haven't seen it, I totally recommend it, though it does contain a LOT of bad language. But it's smart and sleek, and I think you'd dig it.

    Also, it has Clark Gregg in it! Which I totally didn't remember -- and why would I, since the last time I watched it, Avengers hadn't happened yet? But he's awesome in it -- my friend and I kept joking that part way through the movie, Nick Fury showed up off-screen and recruited him for SHIELD, because his character was like a less-sassy Coulson.

    Also, the guy who played Pyro in X-2 and X-3 is in it, so at one point, we got a big laugh over Agent Coulson sending Batman to interrogate Pyro.

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    1. Yeah, this one is definitely not worth watching in that case. I have not heard of Spartan. I will have to check it out; thanks for the recommendation! I will watch just about anything with Clark Gregg in it.

      -James

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  5. I saw the first one. I've never enjoyed kidnapping movies so I skipped this one, but the idea still interested me a little.

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  6. I still need to see the first one; but at least I know not to have high expecations at all if I then want to watch this one. :/

    ~Jamie

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    Replies
    1. The first one is kinda worth watching, but definitely not this one.

      -James

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  7. I can see how people are not taken with this movie. However some cheap thoughts. It was amazing tradecraft for Maggie to throw granades to so her Dad could guide her. The stupidist move in the movie is when he leaves his wife, maybe hide her at least. I think if you have children this movie hits all the parental parinoia and dog whistles. I thought it was a good movie and look forward to three which is supposed to be even more terrible. All movies of this genre ex cia, special forces or hit man are fundementally the same. Liam Neeson elevates the Taken experience better than anyone currently killing twenty to thirty people an hour.

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  8. James I can not wait for your review of American Sniper. Its a polorizing movie for sure.

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