It was made very clear in the first part that Liam Neeson's ex-CIA character Bryan Mills can take on any number of men and fight against all odds and emerge victorious. To put it lightly, Oliver Megaton's Taken 2 is an Ek Tha Tiger for the English-speaking audience.
The film begins where it left off in the first, the father of one of Kim's kidnappers seeks revenge from the man who murdered him. And once that premise is established, it becomes pretty clear what course the plot will follow. Murad Krasniqi (the vengeful father) plans to abduct Bryan's family and then kill them before his eyes. However, they only succeed in capturing Bryan and his ex-wife Lenore, while their daughter Kim manages to escape. The ex-CIA agent communicates with his daughter via sophisticated gadgets and guides her to help him save them.
The one-man army formula isn't new to Indian audience, therefore, it becomes extremely predictable what is going to happen. The only question that the film can answer, is how? But as it turns out, the 75-minute long answer to that question is mind-numbingly obvious and stale. The bad guys' bullets just can't find the target and the protagonist's punches are good enough to knock out the secondary henchmen. Oh grow up! Apart from a clumsy chase sequence towards the end, where Kim drives the car having failed her driving test back home twice, none of the action scenes cause any ripple.
Luc Besson who has made a career out of writing action films, disappoints with the story. It simply looks like a desperate attempt to make a decent film into a franchise, but frankly, Taken doesn't have it in its theme to become a series. Liam Neeson's screen presence and dialogue delivery is what the 95 minutes revolve around, but besides that, it's an outright yawn fest.
Taken 2 is dull,unimaginative and there is absolutely nothing that you take back with you after you've seen it. Not a single memorable dialogue, not a single exciting visual - absolutely nothing. And the only thing you identify with is Liam Neeson's last lines to the villain, "I'm tired of all this." Yes, Liam, we all are.
Rating: 1 out of 5
Published in DNA After Hrs (Pune) on October 14, 2012
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