Watch the first one many times and enjoy, because the sequel is terrible

Rating: 2/10 (7 October 2012)

I was enthused about Taken 2. The first Taken was an awesome flick on so many levels—sure, if you want to see Shakespearian acting a dialogue, Taken (the first) was not for you. But if you want to see action, dialogue, believable characters, and some gritty but realistic (mostly) violence, Taken (the first) was awesome. If you want to see action, dialog, some believable characters, and some gritty but realistic (mostly) violence, then go back and watch the first Taken movie. You will not find much of any of these in Taken 2. To be fair, Taken 2 is not the worst movie that I have seen in the theaters this year. That honor goes to Dark Shadows, which is, I believe, the new standard for disappointment in a film that had great actors, great directors, and great promise. But wow, Taken 2 came close to being as bad. I always indicate "May be spoilers" in my reviews on IMDb in case I let something slip, but I try not to let many details out, because regardless of how good or bad the film was, I believe that the people involved deserve respect for their efforts, and I am willing to admit that I may be wrong in my reviews, so I don't want to ruin any surprise. Fortunately, with Taken 2, the above warning is not all that necessary. It is an ACTION film. In theory. After about the first half hour, things eventually started moving at more than the glacial pace the movie started with, and that began with Liam Neeson (OMG!) knocking on someone's door. Taken 2 was—once you get past the first half hour or so—wildly predictable. A few (and very few) Luc Besson-style fight scenes and one really long car chase. There was one twist where Winnie The Pooh looked down through a hole in the roof and said "It puts the honey in the basket or it gets the hose again," and that was kind of scary. But wait, that didn't happen. That must have been when I nodded off and dreamed that a child's cartoon combined with a book/movie written more than 20 years ago had more entertainment and action value than Taken 2. The key to a great movie is to have a great opening sequence to bring people in, a middle sequence with a great story with great characters, dialog, action, romance, etc., and a great ending—often with a twist involving the characters, dialog, action, romance, etc. The key to a good movie is to have two—or even one and quarter—of these attributes. Taken 2 had, well, none. Opening sequence—boring. Middle sequence—poorly put together. Ending—weak, weak, weak. I could add another weak and that would almost make for a month that you should avoid wasting your time or money on Taken 2. Please take my advice—it is better to get the hose again from Pooh than to sit through this film.