With Taken, Liam
Neeson’s gravelly threat of a “very particular set of skills” led many
filmgoers to wonder what was still waiting in that bag of tricks. While not groundbreakingly original, Taken 2 replicates much of what worked
in the first film and adds enough new material to justify the sequel treatment.
When news that a sequel was en route, audiences joked, “Who
gets taken in the next one? The
mom?” Well... yeah. Taken 2
picks up about a year after the events of the first film, at the funeral of
the Albanians killed by Bryan Mills (Neeson).
The families swear revenge on Bryan, who’s currently touring Istanbul
with his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). This time, though, it’s Bryan and Lenore who
are taken by the grieving father (Rade Šerbedžija) of one of Kim’s late
kidnappers. With the tables turned,
Bryan uses his “skills” to coach Kim through a rescue attempt.
Don’t let the synopsis fool you, though – the star is very
much still Neeson, with Grace’s role amped up to, mercifully, prevent her from
being the damsel in distress once more.
While the premise isn’t wholly original, the film plays up more of
Bryan’s “set of skills,” of which I’m sure this filmgoer wasn’t alone in
wanting more. While some of Bryan’s
abilities defy any standard of realism, the laughter they elicit isn’t one of
incredulous scorn but rather one of unforeseen inevitability. Of course
Bryan could deduce his location using only a grenade and a shoestring; he’s MacGyver
by way of Jack Bauer, something the film pulls off by never letting up.
But what the film invents in Bryan’s talents, it never quite
innovates beyond the formula of the first one – protective father singlehandedly
defends family from evil Albanians. Many
of the scenes in the first film are reused here without new purpose. Again we have Bryan’s trio of CIA buddies who
don’t do much beyond drink beer and giggle at Bryan’s unrequited love for his
ex-wife. There’s the same framing
technique of Bryan attempting to do something to help his daughter (singing
lessons in the first film, driver’s license here).
Disappointingly, the one thing not replicated is the first
film’s sense of humor. While the
audience is chuckling, we’re never really laughing with the characters, as we did in the first; Bryan is more
humorless this time around, never really dropping one-liners or quips to
accompany his kills. This different mood
is attributable in large part to the fact that Bryan doesn’t have a foil in
this film as he did with Jean-Claude in the first; this lack is even more
apparent since we see Jean-Claude in an early scene, never to return to him
again. If there’s a third film, I’m for
bringing the French policeman back.
Instead, the focus is on the action and the deployment of
unseen “skills.” If the film could be
used as a marketing tool for a seven-week course on “How to Acquire Bryan’s
Skills,” it’d be successful by leaps and bounds. The action is thrilling, unrelenting, and
enviable; though humorless, the fight and chase scenes are unremitting. Perhaps, though, the action is less compelling
because of how inevitable it seems; having already seen what Bryan can do, the
stakes seem somewhat lower here. In Taken, it seemed he was up against an
insurmountable 96 hours to rescue his daughter in the middle of Paris; here,
though, his own abduction in Istanbul never seems more threatening than a
mosquito bite. (I haven’t yet decided if
this is a strength, which allows the film to focus on how badass Bryan is, or a
weakness, which doesn’t give sufficient stakes to justify a Mills-level response.)
Taken 2 does add a
new thematic layer – the idea of the cyclical nature of vengeance and the
inevitability that blood begets blood. “Because
I am tired of it all,” Bryan wearily intones near the film’s climax; it’s an
oddly smart moment nestled inside the film, rejecting the easy popcorn-fueled “Kill
’em dead” attitude you might expect.
This is an idea I’d like to see explored more in a subsequent
installment, but its inclusion here demonstrates that the filmmakers have done
more than just give us a bigger version of the first film.
Ultimately, Taken 2
is a great sequel but perhaps not a great film.
Newcomers to the franchise won’t find much to thrill them and indeed
might wonder, like the song goes, what’s it all about. But fans of the original will find enough to
enjoy here, a few worthwhile additions and enough amped-up repetition; where The Hangover 2 merely replicated the
first film with more male nudity, Taken 2
repeats what worked and embellishes it so that it’s not a mere revision of the
first. Though it’s not an A-list cult
film like the first, Taken 2 is a
B-film that never disappoints.
Taken 2 is rated
PG-13 “for intense sequences of violence and action, and some sensuality.” As in the first film, there are plenty of
shootings, stabbings, and fist fights, but only one knife wound is bloody. Kim has a boyfriend in this film, with whom
she makes out in one scene; she runs in a bikini in another.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Taken 2 (2012)
Labels:
2010s,
Famke Janssen,
Liam Neeson,
Luc Besson,
Maggie Grace,
movie reviews,
Rated PG-13,
Taken
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