Action-Packed and Super Fun to Watch

Rating: 8/10 (22 February 2016)

I love this movie. I've seen it already a couple times, and I've always loved it. This time was no exception.
The plot of Taken is exactly what you'd expect from a movie with that title: It's about someone who gets taken. In this case, a man's daughter, and the man, Brian, goes after her. It's paced very well, and all the reasons for coming to certain conclusions aren't implied (like in other movies I've seen like this) but instead are obvious and explained. Everything has a reason for happening, and it remains relatively simple throughout.
The characters are pretty good. They aren't horribly well-developed or anything, but you know them pretty well by the end.
Taken is super fun to watch. The action scenes are great, a lot better than others that I've seen. They aren't expertly choreographed or unrealistic or anything. Brian uses quite simple movements to attack his enemies, while still maintaining a quite fluent and epic battle to watch. It adds to the realism of the fight while not being boring to watch. Oftentimes the simpleness of his moves are quite humorous in how dispassionate and relentless they (and he) can be.
Something that I noticed particularly about this movie as opposed to other movies is that Brian's character is pretty open about his old job. All these movies about ex-hit men or ex-spies all feel the same: The guy is running from his past but something comes up and he has to take action. In Taken, Brian still hangs out with his friends from his old job, and it's never completely stated what he did for a living exactly. It leaves that part up to the audience. Most characters let on that they also knew what he was doing for work, which once again, isn't the norm in these kinds of movies typically.
Overall Taken is fantastic. The plot is great, the characters are good, the action if great, and it's original. It stands as one of the best action movies out there, and it's definitely different from others while still being loads of fun. In the end I'd certainly recommend this movie to just about anyone looking for a good time at the movies.