Taken Aback

Rating: 7/10 (12 October 2012)

First off, let me just say something here, the first "Taken" film is not a masterpiece. I remember watching it the first time and thinking it was amazing, I watched it again a year later and was only mildly impressed, the number of logical inconsistencies in that film are mind blowing that being said I still enjoyed it. And in my opinion "Taken 2" is basically the same kind of film, you basically just forget the preposterousness of the situations and just go with it, and chances are you'll have a good time.
I'll have to say I was worried at first as the film was directed by Olivier Megaton known for directing the spectacularly bad "Colombiana" that was a film that asked you to turn you brain off and then beat you with stupidity so much your brain kept asking to be turned back on. The director's style is also a bit at fault here as he ruins some action sequences that are pretty awesome I imagine. Why do I "Imagine" and not know you ask? Because the director insists on cutting each shot so fast and shaking the camera like there is no tomorrow and sadly a lot of the action scenes are rendered nigh incomprehensible in this way. You basically just get the gist of the idea of whats going on, and that's after concentrating very hard on what you are watching. Thankfully however the film has enough cool moments to redeem this in my opinion. It has a cool car chase in which a ridiculous amount of shots are fired and property damage is caused. Its also got Liam Neeson which is always great. So basically let me break it down for you.
PROS Liam Neeson killing bad guys. An epic action sequence or two. A overall pretty good film. CONS Two much shaky/up close cam that makes it difficult to tell whats happening. One scene in particular has an explosion that is so blatantly edited in its just sad. The Main Villain's fate is just lame. Basically a retread of the original just with some details changed.
So as you can see this is just my opinion but I enjoyed "Taken 2" it was an entertaining if not original film. With a lot of gunshots and punches.