Once again, it is a real pleasure to see a likable protagonist tracking down some of the most despicable sickos in recent movie history

Rating: 7/10 (8 October 2012)

One of the genuine pleasures of the 2008 film "Taken" was seeing Liam Neeson tracking down some of the most despicable sickos in recent movie history. It was exciting to see a character we really liked disposing of villains we really hated. The villains in "Taken" were not made out to be charismatic, empathetic, or even particularly smart. They were not given enormous background or one half of the movie's screen-time; we saw just enough of them to pick them out of the crowd, identify what their motives were, and demand that they get their comeuppance. Call me morbid, but I personally do not like the idea of serial killers spending the rest of their lives watching television, pumping iron, and lying around on the tax payers' expense. The sequel to "Taken" recaptures a good deal of that excitement, and it further reminds us that there are people like this in the world—and not only in Albania.
The setting is now Istanbul, where Mr. Neeson, once again the retired CIA agent wanting to reconcile with his teenage daughter (Maggie Grace) and ex-wife (Famke Janssen), is vacationing. Although it is curious that they would choose to spend their vacation time in the same general part of the world where Miss Grace was kidnapped, pumped full of drugs, and nearly sold into prostitution in the first movie. When I first heard the rough plot line of this sequel, I cringed. I was not keen on the idea of a revenge story: the father of one of the villains from the first film is seeking revenge for his son's death. I was fearful of getting too much back-story, too many meanwhile-in-the-city moments, and the easy tendency of making a villain into some kind of superhuman mastermind. While there is too much back-story (the opening prologue could have easily been removed for better effect), the filmmakers do a general good job at keeping these guys from center stage. I like that these guys are not represented as geniuses with impeccable systems: they are unstructured, they make mistakes, they let their obsessions get the better of their judgment. And I like how, just as we'd imagine people like this in real life are, they do not particularly care about their comrades, just as long as they get what they want in the end. We usually just see them when they come into contact with Mr. Neeson, which means, of course, fist fights and shootouts.
The action sequences are, for the most part, very good. I will grant that I am getting a little tired of the hand-to-hand combat where we get split-second cuts and extreme close-ups of fists striking stomachs, but the ones here are satisfying. One thing I also liked, and this goes back to storytelling techniques, is that when Mr. Neeson encounters a villain who is nearly his equal, it is a man we have never seen before. A lesser movie would have given this villain a lot of beforehand screen-time, beefed him up, given him a lot of ridiculous dialogue. By having him appear out of the blue and surprise Mr. Neeson—and the audience—it's much more interesting. And it's more suspenseful as to who is going to come out on top. "Taken 2" features one of the most brilliant and viscerally exciting car chases that I have seen in a long, long while. In this excellent moment, the director chooses to avoid the tendencies: he pulls back on his camera a bit, gives us some fantastic wide shots as the cars skid across the streets of Istanbul, and the edits are not quite so rapid. The scene is so exciting that I was willing to forgive the fact that Mr. Neeson and Miss Grace were apparently in a self-repairing taxi cab, as it seemed to come through every collision and gunshot without a scratch. That is until some Turkish soldiers fired upon it with a machine gun. Go figure.
Satisfied as I am with "Taken 2," I do have some reservations I must take note of. First of all, why couldn't this movie have had a little more of the heart of the first film? At one point, Maggie Grave even plays super-soldier herself, climbing rooftops and jumping off balconies without hesitation. Funny for somebody who's afraid to take her driving test. Secondly, again, why we should she or anybody from this family even think if returning to Europe after what happened before? And I must admit, I did give out a chuckle when the police of Istanbul were able to ignore three grenades going off in the middle of their city, destroying a parking lot and two rooftops, but immediately appeared when a couple of pistol shots rang out in an alleyway. And finally, in regarding the main villain: the father seeking revenge. Why did the dead son have to be the one that Mr. Neeson tortured the most in the first movie? It would have been more effective—and plausible—had the dead son been one of the unspecified men killed in the first film. Surely there were other revenge-seekers related to guys other than the one who was strapped down to a chair and electrocuted.
I was auspicious about this movie when I first heard about it. Immediately, I was afraid that Liam Neeson's second movie of 2012 was also going to flop for me. I do still wish the movie had had a little more heart, wised up its own mind—i.e. dealing with those grenades in the city and the slow-responding police a little better—and thrown out the divorced-couple-reconciliation subplot. On the whole, however, "Taken 2" is a more than satisfying action movie. I think Mr. Neeson's been redeemed. I can now easily forget the utter dud that was "The Grey."