TAKEN 2 Review: Look Who's Taken Now

In 2008, a low budget action flick starred Liam Neeson, an Academy Award nominee, created a massive hype. Taken, the title of said movie, surprisingly received tremendous reception by both critics and moviegoers. Written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark-Kamen, the people behind the success of Leon: The Professional, Taxi series, and Transporter, Taken took over more than $200.000.000 worldwide with just $25.000.000 production budget. The film’s premise is very simple: The daughter of an ex-CIA agent got kidnapped by an organization of human trafficking in France. Bryan Mills, the father, tracked them down and eliminate every single person involved in order to get her daughter back.

Clearly, the producers don't want the story ends just like that, considering the profits they have made. And, although reluctant, Besson, Kamen, and Neeson admitted that a sequel is to be expected. But then the questionis, who’s going to be taken now?

Taken 2 took place a few years after the kidnapping incident. Kim, now 19 years old (played by 29 years-old Maggie Grace), is struggling to get her driver’s license after failing several time in the test. Meanwhile, her mother Lenore (Famke Janssen), is breaking up with her husband. Neeson’s Bryan Mills tries to cheer them up by suggesting them for a vacation together in Istanbul, Turkey, after he finishes his job there. What the broken family doesn’t know is, they have been watched by a group of dangerous people. This organization is actually consists of family whose son and brother got killed by Mills back in the first movie. They want their revenge by kidnapping the trio, and then bring them to Albania, the organization’s home country, to be killed in front of the rest of their relatives.

Story-wise, Taken 2 offers relatively cheesy and predictable plot, much like Taken, but with a lot less soul and charm. The action scenes such as gunfights, bare fist battle, and car-chasing are all bland and boring. It was all like a rehash of the first movie. And while in movies everything can happen, it still has to make sense. How can Kim, a failed driving student with automatic car, easily drives through narrow alleys in Istanbul with a manual one at top speed?

Bashing aside, Taken 2 is still a decent action movie. It just felt forced and rushed. Obviously Luc Besson and Robert Mark-Kamen realize the franchise is being milked and they couldn’t refuse. It’s more of parody of the first one, deliberately mocking Hollywood. This is proven to be true, as the third film now is in talk, seeing how Taken 2 does a great job at the box office. Any ideas of who’s going to be taken in the next sequel?