How can you repay your parents for all they have done for you? Well … you can’t, but you can definitely try. Can Kim Mills (Maggie Grace) ever repay her father for everything he did for her in the events that took place in the first “Taken” movie? Well … she can’t, but she definitely tries in “Taken 2.”
I just got back from watching “Taken 2,” and unlike other critics I’ve read online, I will not be jumping on the hating bandwagon. I thoroughly enjoyed this action-packed sequel extravaganza, and have very few complaints about it. But I will be discussing the few I have towards the end of this article.
One critique I read about online and would like to intersect is the one about the film not having as much bad-assery coming at us from Liam Neeson’s character — Bryan Mills – there was in the first film.
One reviewer goes as far as to say that Neeson hardly gets a chance to show his skills, or even have a hand-to-hand fight like the first film. To this I say, “Wow, what movie did you watch?”
Let me just say, Bryan Mills fights, and fights again, just like he did in the first movie — not just once, or twice, but thrice. Plus, he has new techniques that he shows off in this film. His repertoire is still full of surprises, and he is still showing us how his “specific skill set” can be very threatening to those who wish take away that which is his.
Maggie Grace (as Kim Mills) really impressed me in this film. Sure she is playing a character much younger than she really is, but her character now has a maturity that comes from the traumatic experience she dealt with in the first film. She wasn’t a full-on spy or assassin, but she definitely showed traits that demonstrate she is the daughter of Bryan Mills, the unstoppable.
Famke Janssen’s character, Lenore, has also gone through some changed of her own and I love how she has lost her pride in this movie and is willing to accept her mistakes from the past. I’m not saying Brian isn’t partially responsible for the dissolution of his marriage to Lenore, but she definitely seems much more understanding in this film — which I loved and appreciated because I really hated how he was treated in the first film.
All-in-all, I just wanted to express my deep contentment and satisfaction with this sequel. It was in no way as dull as some critics led me to believe. On the contrary, I pretty much bit off all my nails because of the suspense.
My one observation about the movie was that I think it was heavily edited for content. In other words, it was PG-13 down from what could have probably been an R. I noticed certain fights seemed to end abruptly, or left the stabbing up to our imagination. That makes me feel that when the movie is released on blu-ray and DVD, we will surely have an unrated or “director’s cut” version.
Olivier Megaton directed this time around and his shaky cam techniques were really criticized online, but personally it didn’t bother me. If you have been going to the movies the last few years, it is a common practice. At the same time, I can see where some of the complaints are coming from.
Either way, I am very glad we got a solid, action packed sequel for “Taken.” It is one of my family’s favorite movies, and the sequel will now move on to our list of movies I can enjoy in repeated viewing.
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