Who didn't love the scary Liam Neeson killing machine we saw in 2008's Taken? The "I will find you. I will kill you," rings out just as awesome every time I watch it. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to see the return of Brian Mills in Taken 2. However, as the movie drew to a close I found myself hoping that there would be more. Apparently my lust for violence was unsatisfied. Let me qualify just what that violence is. It is not just any violence, but the justified sort from a skilled killer who has been deeply wronged. This is what we saw in Taken. Brian Mills showed a remorseless display of precise brutality: throat punches, point-blank face shots, electrocution. He responded physically how we feel emotionally towards such barbarism and evil as human trafficking. And perhaps it may be unhealthy or even somewhat sadistic, but I enjoyed this seemingly righteous dispatch of bad guys. With Taken 2, one feels the same justified indignation towards the antagonists, who are the family members of the many men Brian killed previously. There is nothing honorable about them; they desire revenge against Brian and his whole family and are unapologetic towards the deeds of their kin. I grew giddy with anticipation of seeing them dealt with. However, the movie got off to a bit of a slow start: for a kidnapping that the trailer told us would be happening, it took a long time to occur. After it did, the pacing seemed to somewhat slow down again, as we watched a captured Brian giving his daughter instructions on how to rescue him via phone. Unlike the first movie, which seemed to build and build toward the climax of finding his daughter and the men who took her, this one seemed to peak and plateau in a cycle. This being said, some of those peaks were quite good, my favorite being one of the first where we get to watch Brian engage multiple foes in hand-to-hand combat (I had watched the "Krav Maga" episode of Human Weapon two nights before. This scene was reminscent). My least favorite was the car chase with the daughter driving, with the repetitive dialogue and the fact that this girl who failed her driver's test twice was driving like a stuntman. In its consequent culmination, I did not feel the climax; it was as if the final showdown happened prematurely. Sitting silently during the credits, I felt myself imagining a post-credit sequence with a bunch of ninjas attacking Liam unexpectedly or him making the trip to Albania to end these crazy human trafficking families. I feel bad in saying that I had a thirst for a certain type of violence, and worse in saying that Taken 2 did not quench it.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Movie Review: Taken 2 (2012)
Who didn't love the scary Liam Neeson killing machine we saw in 2008's Taken? The "I will find you. I will kill you," rings out just as awesome every time I watch it. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to see the return of Brian Mills in Taken 2. However, as the movie drew to a close I found myself hoping that there would be more. Apparently my lust for violence was unsatisfied. Let me qualify just what that violence is. It is not just any violence, but the justified sort from a skilled killer who has been deeply wronged. This is what we saw in Taken. Brian Mills showed a remorseless display of precise brutality: throat punches, point-blank face shots, electrocution. He responded physically how we feel emotionally towards such barbarism and evil as human trafficking. And perhaps it may be unhealthy or even somewhat sadistic, but I enjoyed this seemingly righteous dispatch of bad guys. With Taken 2, one feels the same justified indignation towards the antagonists, who are the family members of the many men Brian killed previously. There is nothing honorable about them; they desire revenge against Brian and his whole family and are unapologetic towards the deeds of their kin. I grew giddy with anticipation of seeing them dealt with. However, the movie got off to a bit of a slow start: for a kidnapping that the trailer told us would be happening, it took a long time to occur. After it did, the pacing seemed to somewhat slow down again, as we watched a captured Brian giving his daughter instructions on how to rescue him via phone. Unlike the first movie, which seemed to build and build toward the climax of finding his daughter and the men who took her, this one seemed to peak and plateau in a cycle. This being said, some of those peaks were quite good, my favorite being one of the first where we get to watch Brian engage multiple foes in hand-to-hand combat (I had watched the "Krav Maga" episode of Human Weapon two nights before. This scene was reminscent). My least favorite was the car chase with the daughter driving, with the repetitive dialogue and the fact that this girl who failed her driver's test twice was driving like a stuntman. In its consequent culmination, I did not feel the climax; it was as if the final showdown happened prematurely. Sitting silently during the credits, I felt myself imagining a post-credit sequence with a bunch of ninjas attacking Liam unexpectedly or him making the trip to Albania to end these crazy human trafficking families. I feel bad in saying that I had a thirst for a certain type of violence, and worse in saying that Taken 2 did not quench it.
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Great review. Loud, dumb, and idiotic, but also a bunch of fun if you love seeing Neeson run around, shooting, driving, and killing anybody that gets in his way. Can’t say I loved it, but I had a good time with it.
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