Not convincing

Rating: 5/10 (27 October 2012)

We meet up with Bryan as he meticulously obsesses and watches over everything involving his daughter Kim- who turned out to be quite the lovely girl. Apparently he still has nothing going on in his personal life. His ex is going through some marital troubles. When he goes to Turkey for work they join him there. Also in Turkey is the dad of one of the bad guys he killed in part 1. The bad guys are already tracking his moves there. When he leaves with the ex, they take him while she escapes. But eventually they take her as well.
Bryan, prepared for any eventuality has some mini phone with him that he uses to warn Kim, guide her out of the hotel and meet up. They escape the captors chasing them but he has to go back and get the ex, who of course isn't there anymore. He finds her nonetheless and her captor, the main bad guy.
Taken 1 was nothing revolutionary but was quite entertaining despite plenty of weaknesses. Rather than try to improve things, with Taken 2 things go markedly downhill. The positives first. Kim isn't annoying anymore, but rather watchable. Neeson who looked so fragile in part 1 like he was going to fall apart any minute looks healthier this time around and he's also very angry. But he doesn't really get to vent his anger enough. And the times he does, it's filmed so poorly the audience gets nothing out of it. Neeson at all times looks ready to blow up and wreak havoc, but we don't get to experience some cathartic mayhem. As most reviewers have pointed out, how the action is filmed is downright catastrophic for this kind of movie. So at at the end you are left with very little to like. This Olivier Megaton fellow is definitely the one you want to hire if you want to kill an action movie franchise. But decently filmed action still wouldn't have helped the lazy scriptwriting. The long setup at the beginning doesn't really work. It just builds some anticipation to an event that never happens. Aside from impossible aiming skills and a good memory very little is shown of Bryan's special skills. Taken 2 is a wasted opportunity.