A step down from first film, but not horrible

Rating: 5/10 (3 July 2015)

Taken 2 is no where near the first film. Its filled with inconsistencies and silly clichéd situation which don't make any sense at all. Yet somehow, I felt it was an somewhat satisfactory experience thanks to the powerhouse Liam Neeson and some good action. The families of all the Albanian human-traffickers killed by Brian in first film are very angry and are now seeking revenge. This time they try to capture Brian along with his ex-wife Lenore and daughter Kim. But they are successful in capturing only Brian and Lenore. Kim escapes with guidance from her father over his secret cell-phone(which by the looked silly and unrealistic). Now its Kim's job to locate them and then along with her dad kill the bad guys! I liked the way Brian deduces his location with his skills and also didn't mind Kim given the role of savior. Even if on the whole the story maybe rehash of first one, its a bit dynamic in its approach. Liam Neeson is bad-ass as in the first film and action sequences are good again (except the car chases). He is enough reason to give the film some credits. It is still filled with insanely silly things such as Kim learning to drive a gear-shift car out of nowhere or when the bad guys not even torturing Brian or Lenore after kidnapping them. Great Revenge! There is not even person guarding Brian despite knowing the kind of skills he posses and thus he left alone to easily plan his escape. Cool! Taken 2 has its fill of stupidities, yet there were many things I liked. I liked the way they extended the father-daughter relationship and made Kim make up for her rather passive role in first film. The story may be predictably silly at times but I couldn't resist wanting to watch Neeson kick some ass. Taken 2 is an obvious step down from first film but considering kind of horrible sequels we are getting these days in the action genre, it is not so bad. And after watching the Taken 3 recently, Taken 2 feels like an excellent film.
RATING: [2.5/5]