Feels slapped together with little reason other than the need to make a sequel to the very successful original

Rating: Null/10 (10 May 2014)

You know what you're getting into here – the families of the many, many men that Bryan Mills killed while trying to get his daughter back in the previous film. The title doesn't suggest anything new will occur here since it is presented without subtitle or addition other than the usual numeric addition and this is representative of a film that knows it has to deliver action sequences and violence, but really seems to lack the energy to do it in a way that offers much. We jump right into the plot setup, then get the characters where we need them before then starting a run of driving, fighting and shooting sequences.
In terms of just mindlessly doing stuff, the film is not awful and those looking for boxes to be ticked will find them done here – if indeed that is the only request. The first film was not some high art but it had good pace and, although it struggled to link action scenes, it was not totally stupid. In this one very little effort has been made and even when dumb ideas were said out loud in the writer's room, it was clear nobody cared enough to at least try to find something that made sense. The examples are many but my personal favorite is when Bryan and Kim has eluded their pursuers and are heading to the US Embassy for safety – instead of pulling up outside, they decide to ram it with the car so they are 100% inside the Embassy grounds; okay this gives the film another short stunt sequence, however it also makes no sense at all. This sort of stupidity is annoying and even in the moment doesn't work – this isn't a film where you think back later about the stupid narrative, it is a film that you'll do it all the time during.
This is a problem because such nonsense breaks the viewer out of the film and stop you just getting into the pace and action; maybe not a big deal if it was occasional but when it is frequent then you have to wonder. The action itself is okay although shot a bit too frantically at times, the problem is that you are never allowed to forget how stupid it all is – and the film really needs to let us do that. The cast seem stuck with it all; Neeson looks a bit bored of it all even though his reinvention as an action hero must be earning him quite a nice crust (hence he will be back yet again for a third Taken). Grace is okay from her side, but the narrative sees her failing her driving test in an automatic but then suddenly able to drive a manual like a rally driver; Janssen is a pretty plot device throughout and generally the generic villains are totally unmemorable whether they are a guy we see for a few seconds, or the main ones.
Taken 2 is a film that exists because of economics – the first one made so much money that even with the potential sequel takings drop-off, it still makes sense to make it. This is the main motivation and it shows because everything else feels function and "good enough", although the problem is that often it isn't. It will provide noise for the background but the nonsense and lazy writing really detracts from it.