Not a train wreck, as that would imply that there was something to wreck in the first place

Rating: 3/10 (1 December 2012)

My self-appointed duty to review movies has always brought to me great moments of joy. Moments where my search of excellent film has lead to fruitful experiences such as A Separation, cuddling me with the soft warmth of the art of film. And then there are movies like Taken 2, which grab me from the warmth and slam my head against a wall while screaming in my ear. Movies that I wish I had passed by and never given a second glance, but alas, I do my best to leave no stone unturned.
Taken 2 was such a departure from all that was good and holy from the first installment, that it had me walking out of the theater baffled, wondering, "Where on earth did this go so wrong?" They were both written by the same person. Most of the cast was the same. The only real change was the director, who didn't do a necessarily bad job. The scapegoat, then occurred to me--cash. This movie, simply shouldn't have been made, and whatever idiot who proposed this movie, should have a talk with Bryan Mills. This isn't even a train wreck. A train wreck would imply that it had a direction in the first place; however, there was no train to derail.
The writing was a disaster. Way to many liberties were taken in the story for the sake of the plot, and yet they still managed to botch that up too. It was too convenient the way the villains acted as if the writers wanted to keep certain options available just in case they were needed later, and so characters making weird and non-sensical decisions for the sake of extending the story. As a result, a plethora of plot holes began to mar an already pointless and confused plot. And I'm not saying "confused" as in "confusing", as it was mostly followable. No, I'm saying the very characters in Taken 2 seemed like they had no clue what they were doing. They were just wandering around killing people, because hey, Liam Neeson killing people is cool, right? Not this time, go figure.
The first Taken had some of the most intense, gritty fight scenes to every be shot. But in the spirit of most sequels, Taken 2 decided that the brilliant editing technique that made Taken fight scenes congruent wasn't for them. So instead, I was treated to a mash-up of incomprehensible, seemingly unrelated motions that caused me to put my hands up in defeat. A shot of a swing, a shot of a knife being picked up. A shot of a gun being fired. A shot of another swing. A shot of a guy dying. How does this relate? It was almost like in the editing bay they were playing a game where they tried to unscramble the order of the shots, but they left for a coffee break and forgot to finish it. Normally I don't ever feel a need to mention editing. But the errors made in Taken 2 were so blaring and elementary I simply couldn't ignore them. And it wasn't just the fight scenes. Errors were also prevalent in the chase scenes, destroying all congruency. In a couple of shots, they be in one room. Then they're shown leaving the building. Then all of a sudden they're in a room again as if they never left in the first place. It begged the question, "Where are they?" followed shortly by, "Why are they here?"
There was no meaning to this at all; no ideas to drive the story. Taken 2 was a prime example of lazy contemporary film making. They thought by adding some new family conflicts and character motivations it would make it interesting, under some misconception that it will make the movie "deep." They should have referred to the K.I.S.S. principle, "Keep It Simple Stupid!" All is meaningless without a meaning for it. It simply proved to distract from the rest of the story, though I suppose there was nothing to distract from.