Somewhat over-hyped thriller

Rating: 6/10 (2 March 2014)

I became a Liam Neeson fan when he started his new turn as an action hero in the excellent thriller, Taken. But I think this newest entry in his recent action roles is more routine and by the numbers than what some of the enthusiastic response is giving it credit for. It is a "bog standard" action thriller aboard an airplane, and to me, it seemed a bit too goofy in places and overly contrived. It's not terrible by any means, but nothing special. I hope to see more interesting movies in this genre from Neeson in the future, because I still haven't seen any of his other action movies rise to the level of "Taken" yet.
As far as special effects and set design, the movie is strong in those departments. I think the movie is actually best in its first 3rd, there is a nice style and atmosphere built up, and the movie seems quite promising at that point. Then it slowly goes downhill at an increasing rate from there. By the time the ending rolled around I found it to have become very silly and a disappointment.