Nothing like Taken + Islamophobic

Rating: 2/10 (10 October 2012)

I really enjoyed Taken and was looking forward to watching this movie. Not only was the plot nothing like the exciting story of the first movie but the depiction of Albanians and Turkey was motivated by Islamophobia. The tattoos of the Albanian gang depict the crestcent and the moon of Islam (which was also present in the first movie); further, the entire main idea of the movie is about the evil Muslim. The movie begins with an Islamic funeral; prayers are said; greetings all refer to Islamic vocabulary etc. In addition, the depiction of Turkey and Istanbul is completely biased. 99% of the females on the streets were wearing black burqas. Yes, a large percentage of Turkish women cover, but they cover lightly. Only a very small minority would wear the black burqa and they usually tend to stay in their neighborhoods. If you go to the historic peninsula of Istanbul, where almost the entire movie is shot, you will see more un-covered women than those wearing burqa. However, in order to make an Islamophobic statement, the movie makers chose to have every female in the movie wear long black burqas. Also, the police cars that they have used were actually utilized in the 1980s. Once again the Muslim world was exaggerated into a submissive, backward society. This was especially obvious when at the end of the nightmare overseas in the 'third world', they portrayed the happy American people under the sunset with blonde girls rollerblading and the milkshakes ordered at the diner. The filmmakers planned to achieve a cliché and biased contrast of the two worlds with an unrealistic happy ending at home. While these details are not crucial to the plot, they once again prove the Islamophobic and ignorant/biased point of view that Hollywood chooses to portray. Unfortunately, this perspective is one that we should try to avoid in today's society.