Despite his very annoying daughter, Neeson manages to disarm and neck-snap through another engaging action flick.
I cannot even explain how nervous I was going into this one. Taken was one of those sleeper actions movies that really delivered and I was hesitant to believe that Taken 2 could deliver the same punch.
My hesitations soon subsided, however, as soon as Neeson threw his first punch. From that moment on, the film only got better.
Taken 2 takes up right where Taken left off. If you are unfamiliar with the series I will quickly bring you up to speed (don’t worry no spoilers I promise!).
In the Taken series Neeson’s character Brian Mills is an ex-intelligence agent of some sort. The specifics of his past are not clear; what is clear, however, is his ass-kicking prowess which has obviously carried over from his younger days as an operative.
For some reason, bad guys just don’t seem to understand the magnitude of Neeson’s manliness, and thus, to their own misfortune, often kidnap his loved ones.
In the first film his daughter gets “taken” but in this one it’s his wife who gets “taken.” Honestly one of the most awesome parts of this movie is just how similar the structure remained from original to sequel. They had something good and they just did their best to re-create it.
Rather than give it steroids (The Bourne Legacy) or abusing the credibility of a well- known star (Trouble With The Curve), Taken 2 managed to straddle the fine line that all sequel films must walk: bring just enough original material to make it engaging while recreating the atmosphere that made the first film popular.
Now I am not going to exaggerate and say that this is the best original-to-sequel transition since the Indiana Jones series, but as far as film sequels go this one was solid to say the least.
I would strongly suggest going to see it if you enjoyed the first one, and if you didn’t see the first, watch it