2012 had a great lineup of movies a lot of sequels came out this year like the Dark Knight Rises, Bourne Legacy, Expendables 2. One movie that I was looking forward to was Taken 2. There wasn’t that much marketing early on in but I was still keeping up with it I knew it was going to come out in October, I thought that releasing it at that time was a weird choice since I knew a lot people that wanted to see it and were very excited about it. Why not release it as a summer blockbuster? I was starting to get a little worried but I was still hopeful.
Taken an action movie came out in 2008 and caught everybody by surprise. It resurrected Liam Neeson career as being the go to action hero that everyone can sympathize with. So when I found out they were making a sequel I was very happy. I saw a preview of Taken 2, and I really didn’t know what to think of it I wasn’t disappointed but I really wasn’t that excited to see it. It looked like they weren’t going to try something new and that it was going to be a rehash of the first one but o didn’t care as long as I can see Liam Neeson in action I knew it will be passible.
October 5th came but the theaters were showing it October 4th at 10, so I got tickets I was excited to see it, then the movie started and I was very disappointed. I haven’t been so disappointed in a movie that I have looked forward since Mission Impossible that came out last year. The movie plot of Taken 2 is a rehash of the first one but it’s even dumber down to the point that it actually insults the movie viewer. I even heard the audience reacting in disbelieve like for an example there was a scene where a Liam Neeson character instructs his 19 daughter who is played by 30 year old Maggie Grace to throw grenades on a roof so he can pinpoint where she is by the noise, no cops or anything even the bad guys don’t look interesting on what’s going on.
The direction in this movie was horrible; they changed the director of the first one Pierre Morel that did a great job shooting the action scenes with Olivia Megaton who directed Transporter 3 and Columbiana. His style of shooting an action scene is different but different isn’t always good. He uses the shaky camera which was made so popular from Paul Greengrass when he shot the Bourne supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum. I don’t like this style what Megaton does is he not only uses shaky cam but he speeds it up and quick edits the fight so it’s really hard to tell what’s going on.
Another thing I noticed was Taken 1 was initially rated 15a in Europe in which in America would be an R rating. Taken 2 is rated 12a in Europe which is a light PG 13 in America, to me this affected the movie not that being more violent is better but if you’re going to do the same thing you did in the first but dumb down the violence than why am I watching the sequel. There were times when watching this film I was overly comparing it to the first Taken. Do I completely blame the director? No I don’t? A recent interview I found online he said “he had to cut out the violence in the action scenes” I found that in a video interview on total film.com. The new Blu ray is a little harder in terms of violence it helps the movie a little you can tell how people get killed but the quick editing shaky camera doesn’t help.
Now as a film reviewer I should give some positive light to the movie. Even though there aren’t many. I thought Liam Nelson Maggie grace and Fameke Janssen did a good job for what they were giving in the script. The music score to the movie I thought was really good Nathaniel Méchaly who did the score for the first Taken was really good especially during the last action set piece of the film.
To wrap this up I think Taken 2 is a disappointing sequel and that doesn’t live up to the first one. I have told friends don’t bother seeing this in the theaters just stay home and watch the first one at home. It was highly forgettable no scene really stood out. Liam Nelson was great but I could tell that he is getting bored with the character. I wish that Pierre Morel came back to direct it. I'm just not a fan of Olivier Megatron. On a side note if you get the Blu ray there is an alternate version of the second act which is completely different and interesting to see. I hope if they do a Taken 3 more effort would be put into the script. I give this 2 out of 5 stars.
