Taken 2 is a complete betrayal of what made the first movie appealing to began with.

Rating: 3/10 (24 November 2018)

I'll start this review by saying I enjoyed the first Taken. It didn't reinvent the action-thriller wheel by any means, and the movie probably would have been better if it pushed for an R-rating instead of PG-13, but it was really entertaining and Liam Neeson was great in the role. I also think it's relevant to mention that I haven't watched the movie for a few years, and after seeing this movie a small part of my brain desperately wants to revisit it, either to see if I was wrong about the first movie or to wash the sour taste of the second instalment out of my mouth.
This movie is a bitter disappointment when compared to the first. It started out fine, although there were some early warning signs of what was to follow, such as poorly-edited scenes of people talking that ended in the middle of them, and very on-the-nose dialogue like "I'm little obsessive that way" as if to just spell out the character of Bryan Mills to the audience like they were four years old, but apart from that nothing that couldn't have been forgotten once the plot kicked off. However, once the first action sequence crops up the movie descends into a predictable, over-the-top, boring mess, with awful shaky-cam cinematography, generic action music that sounds like it came from a stock website, and flat sound design. I swear to God I heard the same dramatic thud sound effect awkwardly placed throughout the movie at least 20 times.
The biggest problem with the movie is that there are so many elements that made the first one stand out that are almost completely absent from this instalment. For a start, the sex slavery aspect that provided such a compelling reason to root for Neeson in the original is only occasionally mentioned in this one, since the screenplay decided that the lazy "villains that want revenge after what happened in the previous movie" plot was the best idea. Another is the lack of Liam Neeson ass-kicking scenes, as the plot of Taken 2 forces his character to take a backseat to being held captive after the first major action scene, and his teenage daughter throwing live grenades onto the streets of Istanbul (yes this actually happens). Then to top it off, whenever there is a scene that delivers on the premise of the original film, it's done with terrible fast-cut editing and the camera shaking like it was operated by a chimp with Parkinsons, all in the name of covering up poor fight choreography.
Basically what I'm trying to get across is that this movie sucks. There are plenty of other action movies out there which are far more entertaining, and because Taken wasn't really a movie that needed a sequel, it's not worth seeing even as a fan of that film. Let's just say I stand corrected when I thought to myself last night before I decided to watch this "It's a sequel to Taken with the same cast, how much of a downgrade can it be?"