Taken 2 - Written Review

You can only say a few things about sequels.  1) it was on par with the original, and it's ok-good.  2) it sucked.  3) it surpassed the original by adding onto the story and became even better.  That's really it.  When talking about sequel that fall under the first rating I believe you'll have to categorize this movie.

This time, he's the one that gets taken.  No, seriously.

This movie is an example of an unnecessary sequel.  Completely unnecessary.  If you don't already know, the first movie was about Liam Neeson tracking down his daughter and killing her various kidnappers as he tracked his daughter.  They did a few things wrong when it comes to making a sequel.  First and foremost: they didn't do anything new with the story.  Okay, in this movie it's Liam Neeson that gets taken, not his daughter - though they try to do that.  But that doesn't last very long.  And it's still the story of Liam Neeson killing the various kidnappers of his kidnapped family member as he tracks her down.  Namely his ex-wife.  So it's essentially the same story.  Another thing they failed to do: develop the characters.  We should've learned something new about these characters in this movie.  Instead they haven't changed one bit since the first movie.

Listen, I'm kinda in the middle of something.  I gotta go.  Text you later.  Bye.

It just wasn't as good as the first movie.  Even on a technical level it was lacking.  The cinematography was different, and not in that good way.  The action scenes weren't as good, the chases weren't as good, the fight scenes weren't as good.  There also felt like there was a lot of stuff that happened just because.  You know: hand waving.  Why is his daughter as good a stunt driver as he is?  Why did they have to smash through the entrance to the American embassy compound instead of  just stopping and getting out?  The story wasn't as intricate either.  And never once did you get the feeling that Liam Neeson wasn't going to save his family and kill all the bad guys.  There wasn't any dramatic tension in this movie at all.  You knew how this was going to end.

And now I will show you how to unscrew a head from a body.  1-2-3...

Overall, this movie wasn't that good.  It tells a very VERY similar story to the first one and doesn't add any new elements.  The story is very predictable and doesn't diverege from already established traits, thus losing all dramatic tension.  Stories remain interesting when you don't know what's about to happen.  Here, you knew everything 30 mins before it happened.  This was a movie that the trailer made it look like it had potential to be something interesting.  But in the end it failed to develop the story further and failed to be interesting.

Film Crazy Adam was disappointed and doesn't recommend this movie.  The first was better.  Second one not worth while.