Brilliant

Rating: 10/10 (16 October 2012)

Taken 2 is a brilliant genre film. The film-making is of the highest order, every moment is used to its fullest potential; the suspense and action is breath-taking and always graceful. Olivier Megaton proves, as was clear in Colombiana, that he has outstanding talent when it comes to staging and filming action and involving the audience with the story and characters.
This is the continuation of Taken and what is enjoyable is the way the story follows the first film and continuity is kept. In some follow-up films familiarity breeds contempt but the actors are all sympathetic and believable; a light touch to a potentially heavy sequel.
Liam Neeson deserves special praise as the film's success rides on his charisma and physical presence, needless to say he is perfect, bringing to mind Gary Cooper in High Noon, famously Cooper seemed to not be acting he underplayed so well, Neeson is the same here, the less he tries to win you over, the less he does, the more you like his character.
The thing that really makes Taken and Taken 2 work is the nightmare quality to the central character's story, like in a nightmare things keep going wrong and drawing him back into a paranoid state, as if he were being haunted by the obsession of his daughter or loved ones being kidnapped and unable to ever truly relax and live a normal life, that's why the film manages to be truly scary and suspenseful; because we feel what he feels.