A supremely entertaining Action Thriller, with moments of cleverness sprinkled throughout - but falters a bit due to its mounting issues.

Rating: 6/10 (18 September 2018)

James Bond may be synonymous with badass-spy-hero-man, but Liam Neeson's "Brian Mills", while not having as 'cool' a name, still knows how to duke out with the best. At least, in Movie-land.
'Taken' is a surprisingly entertaining action movie that managed to actually unsettle me with some of its themes - namely, forced prostitution - and intrigue me with the way it sets up Neeson's character; the way it doles out his essence with his extreme cautiousness and protectiveness of his daughter, Kim, and his other "particular skills" that are showcased thoroughly throughout the film.
Because of this, Neeson's character was one of 'Taken''s best features. Demonstrating what he's capable of, but leaving enough of him in the shadows to keep you questioning who exactly he is (or was...). After all, the closest we get in terms of knowing what Neeson did before he "retired" was that he was a 'preventer'. This mystery allows us to fill in the gaps of his character ourselves and imagine how he knows what he knows (Although, his knowledge of torture techniques, which he uses on "Marko", gives us hints at his dark past).
Some of the film's other qualities are its action and occasionally, its cinematography. The action was fun, very much so in fact, and it wasn't just Neeson shooting dudes. There was a lot of variation which held my interest; whether it be examining a crime scene, outwitting French agents - switching cars and using a walkie-talkie to speak into a phone to talk to 'Jean Claude', his old French friend and colleague.
Speaking of Jean Claude, though, the movie made me laugh out loud at one point - where he's walking home with a baguette in his hands. A baguette. Just in case we somehow didn't realise he was French.
But I digress.
The cinematography is...OK, and as I said above, its occasionally good with one or two really nice shots sprinkled in here and there.
I also appreciated the fact that the film didn't need to show captions on-screen to let us know where we were. Many, many films are guilty of this, but this film manages to accomplish this entirely through Cinematic language and not on-screen text - which is commendable.
But if it weren't for Neeson's character, some dark themes and moments, its action, some decent shots and its use of the language of film...this film would be painfully generic with many major plot holes.
Some of these plot plots include, "Why would Neeson's daughter leave that map with where she was going in an open pocket of her suitcase, if she didn't want her father to know they were traveling around Europe?...Did the documents that Neeson signed that gave permission for Kim to travel to Paris say where she was traveling, or was the location not specified? Otherwise, why would he sign it? Surely he'd pore over that document before even thinking of giving permission...How come Kim's friend, Amanda, is shown dead in that one scene and presumably, Neeson doesn't at least try to recover the body? And she's just forgotten about by the end of the film?...After knocking out Jean Claude, a former French Intelligence agent, how the hell does Neeson manage to get home again without being arrested at the airport for attacking a former French Intelligence agent? Or because Jean Claude was apparently corrupt, did the 'good' French cops excuse Neeson's multiple homicides because he exposed a major sex trafficking ring?"
Not to mention the score is unimpressive and the 'shakycam' could get really bad at times.
So yeah, the plot holes and the other issues mentioned above really limit this film being very highly-rated, but for what it's worth, 'Taken' is still a fun Action Thriller with interesting moments and glimmers of cleverness here and there.