Movie Review: Taken

The Good:
Characters: Liam Neeson proves himself to be a capable action hero.
Writing: For the most part, is pretty generic, but the scene involving Neeson on the phone with the villain is excellent.

The Bad:
Music: There seems to be a Jason Bourne borrowing here and it plays out sometimes in the music
Acting: As bad ass as he is in this movie, I've never particularly liked Neeson with an American dialect. Other parts are a little too exaggerated in their personalities.


The Plot:
Neeson is a retired operative for the United States Government who is trying to work things out with the family he lost for the sake of his job. When his ex-wife, now married to a wealthy man, comes to him with a proposition of letting their 17-year-old daughter go to Paris with a friend, he is reluctant at first but allows her to go anyway. Eventually his daughter is kidnapped by Albanian sex traffickers and Neeson must use his "particular set of skills" to save his daughter's life, before it's too late.


On the surface, Taken looks pretty generic in terms of action flicks, but when I found Luc Besson's name attached to the script, my interest grew. Taken is generic, but it's the good kind of generic, the kind of generic that's enjoyable.

First and foremost, the biggest surprise of the movie is how great an action hero Liam Neeson is, you'd think someone specializing in period dramas couldn't hold up to gunfights and fisticuffs, but you'd be wrong. Neeson with his stone face and raspy voice brings an aged face to the action/spy genre. I wish they would have worked his natural Irish accent somewhere into the story though, because an American dialect has never seemed to fit him well, but I guess that's just nitpicking.

The story is nothing to rave about, but they go about it in clever ways that don't make it too cookie-cutter. The scene in which Neeson's daughter is kidnapped is superb as he instructs her on what needs to be done, even knowing that the end result will be her getting snatched. The threat he delivers afterward to the criminal on the phone always manages to send chills up my spine. I also like how they handle Neeson's character in general. He's unapologetic, when he wants something, he gets it no matter what. It doesn't matter how illegal or immoral the deed is.

The action itself isn't so over the top that it's unbelievable, but it really feels like the director approached the choreographer and said, "You know those Bourne movies? Yeah, like that." The frantic fist fights and even the scoring, scream of Jason Bourne. Now this isn't certainly a negative, since the scenes are quite exciting anyway and there really isn't a Bourne style of action, but the vibe really hit me that they were in some way trying to emulate the far superior Bourne trilogy.

In regards to the supporting actors, mainly Famke Janssen and Maggie Grace, they really seemed to swing for the fences in the portrayal of Neeson's ex-wife and daughter respectively. Janssen is just a little too dense and vindictive and Grace is far too bubbly and pure for me to really care for them like I did Neeson's character.

Overall though, Taken is a surprise hit for me in terms of an early year release that is usually filled with duds. It's no Bond or Bourne and I don't foresee any sequels, but it has its moments of greatness to make it a solid action film.

Grade: B