The "Taken" Franchise

[StevePulaski]

Taken (2008)
Directed by: Pierre Morel

Liam Neeson in Taken.

Rating: ★★½

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you're looking for a ransom, I can tell you, I don't have any money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills acquired over a very long career in the shadows, skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that will be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you. And I will kill you." - Liam Neeson, Taken.

From that quote, you can see what Taken is. A fast-paced action thriller with some of the most obvious lines in the history of the genre. The entire experience is lightweight and mildly amusing. Its plot is pretty ordinary, yet the film's characters are mostly efficient. It centers around Liam Neeson's Bryan Mills, a semi-retired CIA operative who worked in the field for many years which has led him to be aware, overprotective, and almost constantly paranoid.

Victim to his protectiveness is his daughter, Kim (Grace). Kim is Bryan's daughter from his first marriage that didn't go so well because of his frequent absence since his CIA job is very demanding. Kim is a bright young girl who begs daddy for his signature so she can go to Paris with her girlfriend to look at the museums, aka U2 concerts. Reluctantly and after providing a plethora of conditions, Bryan signs the agreement and Kim is off to Paris. It's not long her and her friend are kidnapped by a group of Albanian thugs.

Before she is taken, she calls her father who hears just enough information to make the effortless flight over to Paris and to try and find her kidnappers. Of course, Bryan possesses an unprecedented amount of skills to conduct an operation of this magnitude. For God's sake get this man a compass, a map, and a ticket to Afghanistan so he can find Osama Bin Laden and take down another terrorist operation!

The first half hour of the film was compelling, interesting, and on top of everything an action film should be on top of; character development, plot, and suspense. After about forty-five minutes or so, Taken then becomes a slightly incomprehensible beat-em-up action film for the least demanding. The camera moves quickly and the fast paced editing style seems like it can sometimes barely keep up with the madness that's unfolding.

Ultimately, the film is somewhat interesting, but how it merited a PG-13 rating is mind-boggling to me. It's not graphic, per se, but the MPAA is notorious for overreacting to small little instances and subject matter. The fact that this film can speak about drug addiction, prostitution, trafficking, and boast the amount of language and violence as if it comes in a limitless quantity, all with a PG-13 rating further cements that if a film focuses primarily on violence, the MPAA will continue to be very lenient on it.

Something also must be said about Liam Neeson's performance. He possesses wit, style, pleasantness, stress, and anger all in a believable manner. The film is essentially a one man show with Neeson bringing as much life to the character, going beyond what has already been provided. The rest of the supporting cast is either rarely seen or killed off shortly after they make an appearance.

Taken is a fair action film, motivated by the recurring action film themes; fast paced, sometimes unbelievable blows to every part of the body and nonstop twists and turns of the camera. Neeson manages to lift the film off its feet in terms of giving an efficient performance, but the film feels generic and suffers from the sameness we are so used to in action films today. It's not bad but its aftertaste is an underwhelming one at best.

Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Leland Orser, Jon Gries, David Warshofsky, Katie Cassidy, Holly Valance, and Famke Janssen. Directed by: Pierre Morel.

[StevePulaski]

Taken 2 (2012)
Directed by: Olivier Megaton

Liam Neeson's Bryan Mills dashes through secondhand markets in Taken 2.

Rating: ★½

Back in January, Liam Neeson was on his A-game with The Grey, an abstract, stylish, and truly exhilarating picture about survival of the fittest and how to cope with life when you're down to your wit's end. The film has gone on to have sort of a tainted legacy, with some viewers questioning its logic, its realism or lack thereof, or simply the ending, which has left a good or bad impression on many.

It wouldn't surprise me if I learned the same people criticizing the logic and realism of The Grey are the same people who loved Neeson's earlier picture Taken and will be lining up at the multiplex to see this sequel, ominously and ridiculously titled Taken 2 (there's not much else they could've called it, but there are certain titles you don't place a "2" after). Both films lack logical points here and there, but the last time I saw a sequel this lax and lazy was The Hangover Part II. Taken 2 is a thrilling roller-coaster you've rode on before; an exercise in rehashing formula that wasn't particularly compelling the first time around. My praise for the first one was minimal, but I admitted that the film offered more exposition and detail than previous action films cared to give their audience.

Yet it would seem the only way Taken 2 knows how to expand on its characters is by flashing back to its predecessor in cheap and choppy fashions. The film opens with a group of men in Albania attending a funeral, mourning the men who ex-CIA operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), killed in efforts to find his kidnapped daughter. Then we cut to present day and learn that Kim is trying to get her driver's license (need I mentioned Kim is played by Maggie Grace, who is twenty-nine and looks absolutely nothing like a teenager?). Bryan is still overprotective, as usual, and decides to book a trip to Istanbul, not far off from Albania, I may add, with his daughter and ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen).

But wouldn't you know it? Not too long after Bryan, Lenore, and Kim arrive in Istanbul, the two parents go out for a drive and are subsequently kidnapped by the same Albanian men we saw mourning their loved ones in the beginning of the film. And wouldn't you know something else? When Bryan is tied up, he manages to call Kim, who is still back at the hotel room, and has her open his enormous briefcase of everything a spy/ex-CIA agent could want, pull out a map, calculate the circumference in several areas, ink spots where he might be located, throw multiple grenades out the hotel window to try and see if her father can hear them, and is able to find out exactly where he is in a matter of twenty cinematic minutes? If you thought the original film was incredulous, this film is light years more far-fetched than its predecessor.

Olivier Megaton's direction is some of the worst I've seen. Almost as bad as Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The fight scenes (and there are a lot of them) are largely jumbled and incoherent, and the scenes of car chases, with vehicles reaching high speeds and bullets flying in every conceivable direction, shots rarely last longer than a second and the camera never remains still. The whole photography is gray and monotonous, and captured under unsteady direction, it's a messy looking endeavor.

Emerging from Taken 2, I had but two questions looming in my head; one, why is Bryan Mills so good at saving his daughter from danger yet so inept when it comes to protecting her from danger in the first place? The other question is, how can twenty-nine year old (ahem, sixteen year old) Kim fail a driver's test yet be able to drive so fluently through the uncertain streets of Istanbul at top speed with bullets flying through her windshield? And don't get me started on the scene where her and Bryan crash through the US Embassy's booth...

Starring: Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, and Maggie Grace. Directed by: Olivier Megaton.

[StevePulaski]

Taken 3 (2015)
Directed by: Olivier Megaton

Liam Neeson's Bryan Mills returns for the third and final time in Taken 3.

Rating: ★½

Read the full review on Influx Magazine, influxmagazine.com/taken-3-review/