Incredibly lame

Rating: 2/10 (23 February 2009)

"Taken" has some well-done action scenes, which might look excitingly new to younger viewers. Besides that, it's a story-telling nightmare and a slap in the face of anyone who appreciates brains in an action movie - even when their not all over the screen.
Most notably the movie fails miserably at creating any kind of credibility - not to mention empathy - for the main character. Desperately trying to portray him as the rejected father who gave up the job that he loved so he can be close to his spoiled daughter the film makes Liam Neeson's character Mills look like nothing but a gigantic loser. He gets pushed around by his horrible daughter and his even worse ex-wife. Why would he ever try to help either of them? And why should I care if he succeeds or not? After 15 Minutes I have absolutely no idea, but somehow I am still willing to see where this goes.
To make a long story-telling nightmare short: It all goes terribly wrong. For example, we are forced to witness Mills as some sort of Jack Bauer's clumsy brother-in-law who thinks he's tough because it's said to run in the gene pool. Did the creators really believe that 24 is suspenseful because Bauer has a gun and uses a lot of high-end spy technology? Why else would they show Mills' aging ex-colleague at his home computer telling him the name and birthplace of his daughter's high-jacker based on some sort of pathetic voice analysis? No offense, but this scene is just pitiful. At another point Mills finds out that his daughter lied to him to get permission to go to Paris. He just waves her good-bye and doesn't do anything about it. Once more I am left to wonder: Why should I care for this person when his problem is not losing his daughter but - excuse my French - having already lost his balls and brains? At this point all I can think of is the 8 Euros that I paid to watch this.
We then (more or less) follow Mills on his point- and brainless killing-spree through Paris encountering extremely flat and moronic enemies (yes, including the stereotypical evil bureaucrat). In the end he finds his daughter being sold to the son of a sheik. I mean really: How bad is this? How can you so openly exploit the most simple-minded resentments and enemy concepts for your dramatic purposes - and think you get away with it? Especially after these concepts have so eagerly been used in real life and politics over the last years? Sorry, I'm not against shooting people in movies but based on this, it just makes me sick.
In the end Mills gets his daughter back and takes her to singing lessons while I struggle to find out what this movie is trying to tell me. The world is a bad place so don't travel? Don't go to Paris, become the generic version of Britney Spears instead? Don't stand up for yourself but save your daughter's bottom however stupid she acts? Or was "Taken" intended to be some sort of parody on American paranoia? I honestly don't know. If so, it failed. If not, it's just pathetic.