Predictable, unoriginal, and unbearable

Rating: 1/10 (28 December 2010)

"I told you so" would be an understatement for Liam Neeson's character, ex-CIA ­operative Bryan Mills, in the film Taken.
Mills retires from his job to spend more time with his 17-year-old daughter, Kim, who now lives with her mother and wealthy stepfather. Kim plans to travel to Paris and seeks her father's permission, but he is worried about her safety. Kim's disappointment and the anger of his ex-wife convince Mills to change his mind.
However, almost as soon as Kim arrives in Paris, she is ­kidnapped. Now Mills is faced with his worst fear, losing his daughter. He uses the skills he learned from his job to track down her captors.
Taken does not have much of a storyline (and what little plot it has is clichéd and predictable). Nor does the film ­feature original, developed characters; the audience is forced to put up with the seemingly ­superhuman Mills, his spiteful ex-wife, the naive, spoiled Kim, and the inept "bad guys." Consequently, Taken relies on action and some suspense to engage its ­viewers. Perhaps the best scene of the movie is Kim's kidnapping, in which the element of suspense is ­executed very well.
Unfortunately, the strengths of the film are negated by the ending, which I can only describe as terrible. There is a complete change in mood, and there is no transition for the change to make sense. The ­finale also leaves many loose ends and seems to question the audience's intelligence with the amount of liberties it takes.
Bottom line, expect a mildly entertaining action flick with one-dimensional characters, a dull script, and a predictable plot.