Some people just don't seem to get it

Rating: 8/10 (16 January 2009)

Picture these scenarios: ~A robot from the future is sent back in time to kill the one responsible for the creation of the beings which are destroying the world in his own time.
~A many-faced secret agent kills more people over the course of half a century than anyone would bother counting, including some supergeniuses ranging from dangerous to annoying to pathological, journeying everywhere from the Alps to space.
~A man who has no clue who he is turns out to be a supersoldier from a government project, and decides to do everything he can to expose this diabolical setup. In fact, this very scenario happens multiple times to multiple men.
~A farm kid comes home to see his guardians murdered, and ultimately makes a giant hunk of metal explode, saving the universe.
The moral to this story: anyone complaining about plots holes and feasibility really needs to stop watching action movies.
Neeson does a stellar job portraying a man on a mission. His motivation this time borders cliché and unique, because it's not overused but not wholly original. Actually, it's somewhat reminiscent of "Man on Fire". His character doesn't develop throughout the movie, except perhaps to become more and more assertive (shooting a friend's wife in the arm and threatening her life to get what he wants), but it's not particularly necessary to develop the theme of fatherhood given its inherent complexity. The action was great, the acting was pretty good across the board (Neeson was great IMO), and the direction was effective.
I only have two major gripes.
1) Nothing happened regarding the friend after she died. In fact, there was no followup about the trading ring at all. I think there should have been some.
2) There were only about 2 minutes in which Neeson appeared helpless. While the action was great, aesthetic is often built on tension and release. His utter control over the situations he was in was great in the "action hero" way, but for the sake of the story he should have been a little more challenged.