Guest Review - Taken 2 (2D)

Taken 2 has taken the US Box Office to a new level for October month business with a whopping $49.5 millions in its first week. It was released in Singapore last week as well and my friend, Ben has kind enough to share his guest review here once again.

As usual, before the review, you may want to take a look at the trailer and do be warned that spoiler is expected! ;-)

¨Listen to me carefully Kim: Your mother is going to be taken, and people are gonna come for you to. ¨

This part summarized how inept the villains were, letting a former CIA had all the time in the world to make the phone call. This was ho

w Taken 2 felt overall. The bad guys were simply not bad enough (in their treatment) and bad in everything else from shooting to keeping prisoners.

Taken 2 was a direct sequel to the 1998 sleeper hit Taken, the plot followed that the families of those thugs, that Liam Neeson wasted in the first movie while searching for his kidnapped daughter, came back for revenge. In a better director, the irony of bad guys had family and the wheels of retribution would turn forever, however in the arms of French Director, Olivier Megaton, that was only skimmed over in a few moments. that's a waste as it would elevate the movie from a mindless action flick.

In Taken, it was believer as the thugs never expected the father to be a ex-CIA agent with the tracking and fighting abilities. But in Taken 2, the revenging families members should have come prepared, and yet they failed to strip search Liam, leaving him alone for so long with only cable ties? COME ON, this guy practically wiped off the whole triads singlehandedly! I would have place a bullet in his head the moment I had him. 

Once again, Taken 2 felt into the one-man-hero scenario which the hero's bullets always find the targets and bad guys' bullets only worked on the walls and the ground. There was hardly a scratch of him until the ending climax.

Personally Liam Neeson was too old for this and definitely not in his best condition to make the hero believable. The script borderline from early flat domestic issues (car licenses) to ridiculously stupid (would you trust your daughter with no prior experience to throw a grenade, not once but thrice?)

The saving grace would be that the predictable story was bearably short.

Have you seen Taken 2? In your opinion, which is better, Taken or Taken 2?

Cheers!