Perhaps the best thing about Taken is that the film is reminiscent of the old arcade beat-em ups. The film sets up its plot for the first thirty minutes (or opening cut scene) and then becomes Liam Neeson pressing punch, throw and kick buttons for the next hour and a half. It also is a great reminder of how great action films can be when handled well.
Taken opens with Bryan Mills (Neeson) trying to reconnect with his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) much to the chagrin of his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen, who starts off as the ultimate bitch in the opening scenes.) The preliminary conflict arises from Bryan’s instinctive unease with his daughter’s planned trip to Europe for the summer. Bryan, under specific conditions, finally agrees and his daughter (along with her friend) is off to Paris. A “cute guy” they meet at the airport follows them home, makes a call, and then has guys come over and kidnap the two girls. Bryan makes his way to Paris and begins pressing his punch button left and right.
Taken Movie Review
The main problem with this movie is Maggie Grace. Instead of playing Kim like a spoiled, seventeen year-old girl she embodies the role more to the age of fourteen. This isn’t “angst, angst, angst” like we’re used to with everything involving teens these days (partly thanks to a stupid vampire movie.) Instead, Grace is whiny, annoying and at times laughable. She’s supposed to storm out of a room upset and hiding her tears. Instead, she stomps out of the room quickly and let’s everyone know she’s mad at daddy. It doesn’t kill the film, but it’s a pretty notable flaw.
The next problem isn’t really much of one, but it’s humorous to think of afterward. We’d basically have no film if everyone would listen to Bryan or had been honest with him. Take for instance the scene mentioned earlier with Bryan, Kim and Lenore. Bryan explicitly says he doesn’t want Kim to go. Instead of saying ‘that’s unfortunate, Dear’, Lenore, like her daughter, whines that Bryan’s wrong and should let their daughter go. This is before he drags the truth out of them that Kim and her friend aren’t going to look at museums but rather follow U2 all over Europe during the summer in hopes of Kim achieving her goal of being a pop singer. Small nuance that is, again, fun to think about when the film is over.
Of course, if they had listened to Bryan we’d have been without the hour and a half of awesome that follows. Bryan arrives in Paris and begins to unleash the wrath of Hades on everyone – this is where this flick really shines. Neeson plays the character with such subtlety that makes you feel this is a man going to tear through any and everyone for his daughter. And boy does he! Without spoiling everything, there’s a sequence where Bryan enters the villain’s lair and does one of the most bad ass things you’ll ever see an action hero do before dealing out punishment. After discovering he’s been followed, Bryan typically speeds up then drives past his pursuer and flips him off. Now true, it’s insanely awesome to watch Neeson put on the ‘infinite health’ cheat code and take down everything and anyone. However, what makes Bryan Mills standout a little bit above most heroes are the scenes where he’s not kicking anyone’s teeth in.
In a society dominated by action films too concerned with the next big explosion or how big the lead girl’s tits are, it’s refreshing to have a film like ‘Taken” that’s subtle in its approach and doesn’t go way over-the-top. The film hearkens back to those 80’s action movies and yes, even the beat-’em-up games that used plot as an excuse for a rampage. This particular adventure happens to be led by a class actor, who, with the help of a pretty neat script, elevates it a little above the standard fare.
