Where the Bond series would love to be

Rating: 9/10 (30 October 2009)

Taken is a truly refreshing and rewarding experience to view. It's back to the basics. A ruthless, believable (to an extent at least) hero kicking bad guy ass. No gadgets, no one liners, just doing what needs to be done in fine style. Seeing a man fight to get his daughter back is so much more rewarding than watching someone try to save the world, or something to that effect, because a) it's believable and b) because we can relate to it, perhaps not directly, but certainly to a larger extent than the world being in danger.
Liam Neeson is in outstanding form carrying the movie from start to finish. His slick tone, mixed with well performed stunts, result in the creation of a simply magnificent character. I have no doubt Daniel Craig will be watching this performance a few times through before beginning work on the next Bond flick.
The movie is of course not without flaws. It would of been nice to see one of the villains challenge Neeson's character fractionally more rather than just standing there like a lifeless dummy while Neeson did as he pleased with them. Also the escape when he gets caught seemed far too straight forward and basic to be in the least bit satisfying. There must have been a more stylish way to handle the escape than simply having him pull the pipe from the ceiling.
Nevertheless Taken certainly has a lot more things going for it than against it and this is why it is proving to be such a popular film. I'm disappointed it took me this long to see it and I'll say if you haven't caught it yet and are perhaps on the fence as to whether to watch it, have no second thoughts about seeing it. You won't be let down. And let us just hope no sequel is ever made. This is without doubt a film that will be best left as is with nothing added to it.