Entertaining but Somewhat Disappointing

Rating: 3/10 (15 April 2014)

I usually like movies starring Liam Neeson. So I expected some good entertainment with a healthy dose of realism. I was actually kept guessing throughout the movie and in this respect, I am quite satisfied. However, I am very disappointed in the lack of realism exhibited by the writers. In fact, this has erased practically all the positive feelings I originally had about the movie. What I am particularly disturbed about are the identity and motive of the perpetrator. They illustrate not only a lack of realism, but more importantly a lack of sensitivity. If this was a science fiction movie or if it was completely unrelated to a real-life event, I would not have expected any degree of realism.
Regarding the subject of realism, there is no question in my mind that the vast majority of the 1.5 billion Muslims are peaceful and are against terrorism. However, there is an important distinction between the following two conditional probabilities. The first one is the very low probability of being a terrorist (or backing terrorism) given that the person is Muslim. The second one is the very high probability of being a Muslim given that the person is a terrorist (or backs terrorism). In conclusion, I would have completely enjoyed this movie if the writers chose a more inspiring and realistic scenario. For instance, the perpetrator could have been a Muslim extremist while the person who helped Liam Neeson would still have been a moderate Muslim.