He's just an OCD boy. Living in a lonely world. He took the midnight plane going to Istanbul. "He" in this little Mo-Town jingle is Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson). If you recall, Bryan has a very special skill set, which basically means he can find you and dismantle you in a millisecond. He did it once before when his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) was abducted by sex traffickers. He ruthlessly hunted them down and issued his own torturous sentence of death. Understandable considering the circumstances, right? Well, the papa of some of those deposed sex traffickers took exception to Bryan's brutality and wants blood in return. So, while Bryan takes care of some business in Turkey, along with his ex-wife, Lenore (Famke Jannsen) and Kim, the dissed papa sets out to take Bryan and his ex. Silly and stupid move from a man whose brain cells are seemingly scattered around Eastern Europe, huh? Meanwhile, Kim attempts to allude capture and help her dad go on the offensive. Mission accomplished. Yadayadayada...Once again, Bryan is able to use that deadly skill set to turn the tables on those hell-bent on evil.
It's good. I'll go with 4.0 Stars for Taken 2. It's almost, if not as good as the original. The only thing the original had going for it was, well, exactly that: It was an original. This follows the same concept with similar action-packed and emotionally charged results.
One thing that did not really equate with the original was bad guys. With Taken, we got to know some pretty evil men pretty well. They weren't pretty to say the least and we got some instant gratification from watching Liam's Bryan Mills go to work on them. The bad guys in Taken 2 are bad--no doubt about it. However, we just don't really get to know them very well and don't experience that emotional charge that desperately wants to see Bryan do his thing. What you have is a bad guy who is a dad who loved his very evil son unconditionally and wants revenge. I would have liked to have seen Bryan shove the son's evil in papa's face a bit more to remind him why his son met a gruesome demise. Instead, we are left with papa's "I don't care what he did, he's my son", which is an attitude that is easy to connect with especially when the son's actions are really (for the most part) left out of the Bryan-Papa square off. Within that character dynamic, more would have been more.
Sure, there are some implausible moments that are typical of these action-adventure thrillers. None of those moments reach with any depth into the impossible, so they are manageable beyond the ole, "...uhhh--wait a minute" gut reactions.
All in all, Taken 2 is a fun flick with plenty of fun characters, action, emotion and the hearty roller coaster ride similar to the original. It doesn't try to do too much. It merely nudges the series along in a positive direction, which is far more than many sequels are able to accomplish.
With that in mind, see Taken 2 and see it BIG! You too, might be totally taken by Taken 2.
True...OUT!
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