Time: 91 Minutes
Age Rating: M – contains violence
Cast:
Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills
Maggie Grace as Kimberly “Kim” Mills
Famke Janssen as Lenore “Lennie” Mills-St. John
Rade Šerbedžija as Murad Hoxha
Leland Orser as Sam Gilroy
Jon Gries as Mark Casey
D. B. Sweeney as Bernie Harris
Luke Grimes as Jamie Conrad
Director: Olivier Megaton

The Taken sequels don’t have the best reputation, especially when compared to the surprise action thriller original. I clearly remember watching and disliking 3, though I don’t have the strongest memories about 2 outside of noticing it being a step down from the first film. For whatever reason I decided to rewatch the trilogy, and I can confirm that the sequels aren’t good at all.

The initial premise isn’t so bad as far as action movie sequels go. This time, Liam Neeson and his wife are kidnapped, and their daughter has to rescue them. On top of continuing the trend of people being actually taken, the film has the movie link to the events of the first movie. It also has an actual established central villain instead of a number of villains that Neeson needs to switch around to pursuing. Outside of that, it’s a very generic action plot which doesn’t have nearly the same degree of tension as the first movie. There are some unintentionally funny moments like Liam Neeson instructing his daughter over phone to throw grenades off buildings in order to pinpoint locations. But scenes like those do help to be memorable and enjoyable in some ways at least.

Liam Neeson returns as Bryan Mills and he remains committed in his part, and he honestly helps to make the movie watchable and sells his scenes.

There is a switch in directors between the first movie to the sequel with Olivier Megaton, who’s certainly a step down from Pierre Morel’s work. Most notable is the shaky camerawork and fast editing, which reduces the effectiveness of the action and makes it hard to make out what’s happening. As for the fight scenes, if there’s good choreography, it seems that Megaton doesn’t want to show it clearly on screen. I’m honestly not sure he ended up directing the third movie after all this. 

Taken 2 is a mediocre and poorly directed and edited action sequel, despite a decent Liam Neeson, and a couple of entertaining and absurd moments.