Taken The Mickey

Rating: Null/10 (7 October 2012)

Taken 2 is as expected cut to pieces to get a 12A rating. Do not bother to see this film in the cinema. A film company allowing a sequel to an adult action film (which was rated 18) to be savaged in order to get children to see it is just a lesson in corporate greed. In doing so they have now lost this patron from here on. I will no longer go to see a 12A - I don't care what it is!
Taken 2 is so cut that you have no idea how Liam Neeson manages to overcome about half his opponents. For example I honestly had no idea that pressing someone's face back so that their head is against a wall will actually kill them! Wow! That's some Ninja crap, surely... No, it's just badly cut action. It wasn't even one of the schizophrenic epileptic-having-a-fit so-close-to-the-action that-you-can't-see what- the-hell-is-going-on action scenes - and there are many of those.
I knew the story would be convoluted and it would stretch plausibility beyond... well okay it was always going to be vaguely plausible at best. If it wasn't marred by badly shot fight scenes and badly cut action in those fight scenes then it could be mildly enjoyable. Unfortunately, this little escapade has probably killed the franchise.
There are many things wrong with the film, Neeson struggling to use a minuscule mobile phone instead of trying to escape his ties when later it takes him no time at all to get through the ties, there's also the length of time he spends on this phone. But its main problems are the cuts and the action being shot by a dwarf with vertigo. I get dizzy enough without this idiotic misuse of a camera. You seriously could not get anything worse if you gave the camera to a six-year-old. Will someone please teach directors how to shoot action again? Please......... ?