Pierre Morel’s Taken unpacks stereotype after stereotype on its way through one mechanical setup after another. In fact, it’s hard to remember that the year is actually 2008 and that plots like this haven’t gone extinct. Alas, as long as there is a market for testosterone-fuelled damsel-in-partial-distress storylines, films like Taken will be there to fill in the gaps with mindless progression and action sequences that have been done before and done better before.
Liam Neeson – yes, that Liam Neeson – stars as Bryan Mills, a talented former CIA paramilitary agent in the Special Activities Division. He’s divorced and he has a daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace). Bryan is attempting to make up for lost time with Kim, so he’s started to become a more present entity in her life. Unfortunately for him, his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) has married a rich guy (Xander Berkley) and has moved on. And, to make matters even worse, Kim wants to take a vacation to Europe.
Because Bryan is a former CIA agent, he doesn’t trust Europe and he isn’t all that thrilled about Kim’s trip. He reluctantly allows her to go, however, only to discover that she has lied about the trip and is actually following U2 across Europe. After about three minutes in Paris, Kim and her friend Amanda (Katie Cassidy) are kidnapped by Albanian criminals and Bryan heads to Europe to get his daughter back. Using incredible intelligence that manages to locate the exact locations of these clowns with relative ease, Bryan is quickly on to the Albanians and begins his trek to recuperate his daughter and spread chaos throughout Paris.
Europhobia is nothing new in film. Hostel did it, presenting obnoxious vacationing students a hell of a problem in Slovakia. Other movies have long presented Europe as a land of uncertainty, all the while promoting the United States as a centrepiece of purity. Taken is no different. Note the appearance of Kim in Europe, especially towards the conclusion of the movie, as she is presented as a practical icon of purity. She is unsoiled, untouched. The Europeans are, for the most part, entirely unhelpful and suspicious.
Taken also presents an endless barrage of action sequences that we’ve simply seen before. The protocol here appears to be ripped from the Bourne series, with close-up hand-to-hand combat used for impact’s sake and a smattering of car crack-ups tossed in for good measure. Nevermind that Neeson’s Bryan has the gift of Ridiculous Convenience, as even ostensibly arbitrary splashes of sludge seem to work in his favour.
Then there’s the idea that the Bryan’s contacts have these abilities in the first place, as he’s able to gain incredible amounts of information in minutes.
Sure, this is the movies and we need to suspend our logicality for the sake of it all. But in a year when we’ve seen some truly tremendous pictures, does Taken really rate this sort of patience? Does this Luc Besson-written exercise deserve such suspension of belief that we actually buy the notion that Bryan can locate the exact name and background of the abductor within minutes of the abduction? Were Taken as boldly entertaining and flashy as Besson’s Transporter series, I might have allowed it.
As it is, however, Taken just isn’t very good at all. It isn’t entertaining and I found myself wandering off more than a few times during its fairly meek hour-and-a-half. The action sequences felt rented and inadequately executed and I just couldn’t get behind any of what Morel’s flick was trying to sell me. Instead, Taken winds up feeling exceptionally flat, insipid, preposterous, and frustrating.
1.6/10
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