Cool concept, decent opening, poor execution of the main plot

Rating: 4/10 (30 May 2014)

There were many excellent aspects to Taken. The whole opening sequence up until he meets his ex at the birthday was a fine example of character exposition. It told us that this man was a creature of habit, that he was careful, that he was a bit obsessive, that it was his daughter's birthday, that he was nervous and eager to please his daughter with the gift, that he was estranged from either his daughter or from a new family to which she belonged, and that his wife obviously left him and can be an extremely jerky woman.
Nonetheless, there were certain aspects of the writing which bothered me significantly as I watched and I couldn't help but write them down as it played. Many of these will only make sense if you've already seen it, but perhaps it's formulaic enough where that won't make any difference. There are probably some minor spoilers in here to the less aware though, so be warned. Here they are:
1. This super careful guy with "skills" didn't see fit to teach his daughter even the slightest common sense.
2. He doesn't use the cell phone he gave her as a tracking device.
3. When scumbags invade the apartment, he tells her to go to a bedroom and hide under the bed. Really!?!?!?!?! First of all, that's the first place anyone would look for her! Secondly, he should have tried to help her find a way to escape the apartment. No man experienced in escaping villains in his right mind would give this advice.
4. He tells her to leave the phone behind instead of secreting it on her person so he could, again, use it to track her. Seriously, it's not that hard to do.
5. After he knocks out the French sleazy guy's accomplice, he doesn't shove him in the back of the car before pursuing the French sleazy guy.
6. He makes his face known to the Albanian pimp/hooker that are in the trafficking chain.
7. He makes a commotion in the hooker den and gets himself in a bind instead of just quietly killing the john in the stall with his daughter's jacket and discreetly sneaking the hooker out to question her.
8. He warns the villain on the phone of who he is so that he can no longer take them by surprise, also making himself potentially vulnerable in the process.
9. He attacks the family of an old friend he finds out is a sleaze. Seriously, even the old Mafiosos know you don't attack the innocent members of someone's family because that's crossing the line and means that anything is on the table. He might as well have put a contract out on anyone he cared about for the future by doing something so careless and moronic.
10. Allows himself to get knocked out and captured because he's too stupid to look before exiting a door.
11. Escapes his captors through pure dumb luck (this is the least stupid one just because it's remotely plausible, but that still doesn't excuse it as lazy writing).
12. His daughter's line when he saves her is a surprised "You came for me." What kind of a !@#$%^& stupid line is that to write for such a moment? I have a suggestion: How about she says "You're here" and he replies "I'll always be here for you." Not perfect, but a darned sight better.
Also, it's not stupid per se, but it seems unnecessary to have the vocal coach bit at the end. The airport part had a purpose, but didn't completely hit home. They should have ended with a slice of the everyday life they had after it was all over to show what had been resolved in a lasting way. That would have been a more satisfying conclusion.
I recently watched a much more strongly written international thriller named Hopscotch. If you're looking for something in this genre to watch, see this one instead.