Bryan Mills(Liam Neeson) might have saved his daughter Kim(Maggie Grace) from the hands of Albanian slave traders. But the death trail he leaves behind causes anguish and desire for revenge in the mind of Murad Krasniqi(Rade Serbedzija), father of the person who was responsible for abducting Kim. Meanwhile, Bryan is trying to spend as much time with Kim trying to make up for the lost time. When Lennie(Famke Janssen), Bryan's ex-wife, breaks up with her husband, the trio gets a chance to spend the vacation in Istanbul. To complicate matters, Murad is able to successfully track Bryan down to Istanbul.
Directed by Olivier Megaton, this movie is one of the action movies that Luc Besson's production company has been churning out at intervals. Of late, all such movies are becoming more and more predictable. There is a thin plot line filled with action sequences; Columbiana and Lockout being some of the recent ones. The purpose of the movie is to take the viewer from one action sequence to another. The good thing about this is the action lovers has something to watch every six months. The flip side is the entertainment quotient goes down with every movie. This movie only helps in hitting a new low.
In all fairness, I haven't seen the first part, Taken. I have seen bits and pieces of it, mainly the action sequences. From what I saw, it wasn't a surprise that the movie redefined the image of Liam Neeson; an aging actor becomes an action hero all of a sudden. In the sequel, the director fails to invoke the same feeling as the first part in the audience for multiple reasons. The action sequences are very few in numbers. Hence it becomes a tedious watch. The movie is set in Istanbul. Except for a few sequences set on the rooftops, everything else is shot inside rundown buildings giving a poor look which may be due to a tight budget. All the action sequences are of close combat types where opponents are close to each other, the movements restricted but fast and lethal. The shaky camera and fast editing employed during these sequences gives the impression of actors being too slow or too old for this type of action.
An action movie should have cheesy and also corny moments. Although there aren't enough of it in this movie, the scene that gets the maximum laugh is how a captive Bryan finds out his location with the help of his daughter.
This isn't worth your time. Stay away.
Language: English
Genre: Action
Rating: *
This is a pretty obvious example of a sequel that’s only going for the pockets of the audience, but at least there’s still some dumb, idiotic fun to it for the time it’s on-screen. However, I do think that Neeson is getting a bit too old for these roles even though he just started it all up. Nice review Nona.
ReplyDelete:) Hope you haven't seen it yet and this review was helpful in preventing a disaster
DeleteGood review Nona. It’s basically the first Taken movie, but this time, with just more of everything else. That’s not terrible, but it’s not all that smart or original either.
ReplyDeleteI have comment moderation on. This helps me in replying to every comment and also weeding out some nasty ones. I have to admit I haven't got a nasty one yet.
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