Taken 2 (2012) - Liam Neeson, Why?

Rating: 3/10 (11 January 2013)

Talk about "taking" away your money! Right from the get-go, a sequel to "Taken", a high-paced entertaining action flick that made Liam Neeson a household name, didn't seem like the best idea ever. No one was asking for this, but sadly, this movie got made, and I wish that the filmmakers backed out of this project from the start because "Taken 2" was one of the very worst movies of 2012. Liam Neeson reprises his role as retired CIA operative Bryan Mills, who invites his ex-wife and daughter to join him for a holiday in Istanbul, where Bryan and his ex-wife are suddenly taken hostage by relatives, friends, and close family members of the men that Bryan had killed, trying to rescue his kidnapped daughter in the original "Taken". Now, he's less treated like a hero, and now leaves it to his daughter to get him free...really? Everything that went right in the original "Taken", went incredibly wrong here. This sequel lost the fun, excitement, care, respect, and realism that the first film had. Everything feels way too staged, and even though this is one of those movies where you have to suspend your disbelief, I couldn't help but keep track of the many times I wanted to scream out "bullcrap", finding myself unintentionally laughing at the many unrealistic scenarios portrayed here. But all my main problems with this movie, the top reasons why this mess failed from the start, are all story-based! *SPOILER ALERT* The main villain is probably the weakest antagonist in any movie in 2012. This guy just walks around aimlessly, making tons of death threats, and yet he's quite too lazy to get his hands dirty and do it himself, but asks his henchman to do the nasty work for him. Also, if you're going to kidnap someone, no henchman has ever decided to leave their victim in a small room, with nobody either watching or guarding the captive, while the other group of henchmen are in the room next door watching soccer on TV. But, to make things even worse, while Bryan tells his daughter what to do over the phone, he tells her to do the most mindless thing that a human being would never do, by throwing grenades off a roof. Those idiots are probably going to kill someone walking down the street. WTF! Directed by Olivier Megaton, this is one of the most poorly filmed action movies I've ever seen. He clearly has no idea how to film a decent action scene. The shaky cam gives the film a hideous look, and the audience is left wondering what the heck is happening. The writing is horrendous, the editing is annoying, there's barely any sound quality, even the actors are really trying. Long story short, I just don't want to talk about this movie anymore. "Taken 2" is one of the worst movies of this or any other year. It should be found, and then killed. "Taken 2", in my review, "pointless, unnecessary, insulting, and godly indulgent".