A bit disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (11 October 2012)

As a fan of the original I went in to see this with a fairly open mind, having read no reviews and seeing it within a few days of the UK release. There are a number of disappointing aspects to this sequel, but the most general one is the script. From early on in the film, the dialogue being spoken by the actors sounds quite awkward and clunky. The set up / premise of the story is good but the way the action unfolds seems very rushed with very little of the attention to detail or use of Bryan Mills (Neesons) information finding skills that entertained us in the first film.
The first film has far fetched aspects but Taken 2 takes these to new levels. As other users have pointed out, the actions of Mills daughter Kim stretch the film's credibility to snapping point. Without wishing to be disparaging about a fictional character, I don't buy that she would be able to do ANY of the things we see her do (apart from perhaps making out with her boyfriend), running across rooftops letting off grenades, driving through the town like the world's greatest stunt driver (who obviously was the one really driving) when she's still struggling to master a reverse park on her driving lessons? No casualties there by the way.
The villains of this film are bumbling buffoons who cannot be taken seriously. These Eastern European sex traffickers we are expected to believe have the martial arts skills of Bruce Lee on speed, yet don't have the mental resources to realise that Brian Mills is not someone to be left alone, and able to then free himself and make phones calls with a pocket device that a blind bat with a bin bag on it's head could find with a quick, non invasive body search.
Seriously, did his kidnappers learn nothing from the previous film? I know they didn't have first hand experience of what a slippery character Brian Mills is, but the fact that he capped pretty much everyone he came into contact with, should provide some clues as to how to handle him. You don't leave him on his own - ever! Some particularly clichéd lines were used to try and justify not killing Brian or his wife at various points, and these were almost comical, sounding more like dialogue from Austin Powers movies that Dr Evil might speak, or from Bond movies of old.
The film is a 12A (UK). I think the first film was a 15 and there was a more hardened version that was an 18. This immediately creates a problem. Much of the violence in Taken 2 is either watered down or suggested and not seen. Yes, lots of people get shot but it's very throwaway action when compared to the first film. A scene where a character is about to get viciously sliced by a knife, because of the film certification, we know will have no pay off, something will stop it happening. Not that I crave any of this, but the whole film has a general weak feel with regards to the violence. Also the villains themselves are no where near menacing or 3 dimensional enough for us to really care what happens to them.
There's an awkward and unsatisfactory ending involving Kim's boyfriend, a barely established character, which is in keeping with the rest of the film. Running at just 90 minutes I think another reason the film suffers is it doesn't have enough time to establish situations, characters or reasoning.
The focus on Brian Mills family as integral characters throughout is perhaps another mistake. We didn't have this in the first film and it was better for it.
This in a nutshell is something that could be billed as 'a violent revenge film with a child friendly film certification'. There in itself is a statement that doesn't sound right but that is what we have, and that should paint a fairly good picture of what to expect.
6/10