Taken 2

♣♣♣♣/♣♣♣♣♣

Taking off from where the Taken ended, this movie follows the life of Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) in the aftermath of his daughter Kim’s (Maggie Grace) rescue from forced prostitution in Paris. He is still obsessive compulsive and overprotective of his daughter, which leads to occasional misunderstandings between the two, in particular with her new boyfriend. Lenore (Famke Janssen) is now divorced, giving way to a possible rekindling of old flames between the ex-husband and wife. Meanwhile, in Albania, the relatives of his daughter’s abductors plot revenge for the death of their loved ones, hatching a careful plan to abduct the three when they come to vacation in Istanbul.

If you think about it, the formula used for this and the previous movie is just the same, except for the possible explanation that the audience was caught off-guard with the first one, which led to the thrill and enjoyment. For this sequel, you see more of that, but since you already know what to expect, that fun feeling might get a bit downgraded, but still enough to give you a good time. The film is too short, not even reaching two hours of screen time. There does not seem to be any interesting subplot left hanging from the first film for them to milk. And so, after they are TAKEN, the action begins, and we are still left in awe because of the action scenes, despite the predictability of the plot. But yeah, if you are looking for something new, you would not find any. Still, if you were a big fan of the first movie, there is no reason for you not to enjoy this.

Perhaps, what is new is the participation of daughter Kim in the action. In the first movie, she was the damsel in distress. Here, her mother takes on that role, leaving her with something more exciting to do, like throwing grenades all over Istanbul. And yes, Kim, the best way to perfect your skills behind the wheel is to head to Istanbul and enjoy that yellow car’s driver seat while being chased by trigger-happy Albanian goons. As for mommy, there is still that X-Men reference and at one point you would just wish that she goes Jean Grey on all of them just to finish it once and for all.

Liam Neeson. Well, the Facebook meme says it all. He was a Jedi. He was Zeus. He was Ra’s al Ghul. And you still think of kidnapping him and his family? True enough, you are insane.

Back to the movie, just refrain from asking questions and you are all good. Besides, you would not get an answer if you do. Most of the complicated subplots are dismissed through a quick cut to the next scene. There really is no room for analysis here so just leave your brain at the door and have fun! As simple as that.