Review: Taken

Liam Neeson plays a former CIA agent and overprotective father, who gets to use his ‘particular set of skills’ when his 17 year-old daughter goes to Europe with a girlfriend (Katie Cassidy) and ends up kidnapped and used in sex trafficking. Neeson happens to be on the phone with his daughter whilst she is abducted and whilst obviously a gut-wrenching moment, tries to get as much information about her whereabouts and the abductors from her as possible. Working on a clock, he has to track her whereabouts on little information (she even lied and told her parents she was going to go on a museum-viewing holiday, but really went to follow U2 on a European tour), or else she’ll be lost to the seedy sex slave trade forever. Famke Janssen plays Neeson’s bitter ex-wife, now married to a well-cast Xander Berkeley, playing a super-rich guy character we’re clearly meant to kinda hate at first. Leland Orser gets to play a rare good guy role, as one of Neeson’s old CIA buddies who gets him a gig early on acting as bodyguard to a pop star (played by Australia’s own Holly Valance).

 

I wasn’t overly fussed about seeing this 2008 flick from director Pierre Morel (the campy but amusing actioner “From Paris With Love”) and screenwriting duo Luc Besson (director of “The Professional”) and Robert Mark Kamen (“The Karate Kid”, “The Power of One”), fearing an ugly, drearily serious vigilante film. As many of you probably know by now, the more serious and realistic a vigilante movie tries to be, the less it appeals to me, and frankly the less I actually believe it. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this film is less “The Brave One” or “Death Wish” and more of a Steven Seagal flick from the direct-to-DVD era. That, however has its own downside, being that most of Seagal films from his post-career period are somewhere between watchable and risible, more often than not resting somewhere in the ‘meh’ area in the middle. This is watchable, but sluggishly paced, unoriginal, and not especially well-scripted.

 

The film’s chief asset is quite clearly Liam Neeson, a genuine actor, who has kind of embarked on a latter day career as a cinematic avenger and brooder in rather dour action/thrillers ever since this film. I can’t deny he’s good at this kind of thing, even if I think he really needs to try something different ASAP. I mean, the guy’s good at a lot of things, not just broody action-thrillers. He sure is a swift, brutal fucker in this, and quite convincing in fights for a guy who really shouldn’t be convincing in fights. Dude is rather old, and not exactly ripped. Not that I’d ever say that to his face or anything. Hell, since he used to box as a younger man, and was trained in martial arts for this film, sheeeit…ain’t no way I’m approaching Mr. Neeson on the street unless he asks me to! I said before that the film isn’t well-written, but full credit where due, the scene where Maggie Grace is taken is well-acted and scripted. Neeson’s ‘I will find you!’ speech has become movie legend, and internet meme hilarity. The story about him leaving it on a person’s answering machine is priceless, and shows that Neeson clearly has a sense of humour.

 

However, there’s no getting around that this film should never have taken more than 20 minutes to set its plot up given that it runs less than 90 minutes. That’s insane. It should’ve taken 12 minutes at most, it’s the rest of the film that really needed beefing up, the set-up should be incredibly simplistic. Also, there’s no way that any 17 year-old girl in 2008 would have heard of U2, let alone wanting to follow that hip, young boy band around Europe. At least, not a typical 17 year-old girl in 2008 (Not that I knew any 17 year-old girls in 2008. That would sound suspicious. I was 28 at the time!). Even if it was an Irish 17 year-old, I doubt she would’ve even heard of them. Fuck off, that’s ridiculous. Then again, this is the same film where that 17 year-old girl has a birthday party (with a freakin’ pony!) that suggests she’s about 12 years old, not 17! It’s completely obvious that Maggie Grace (Fuck you, Shannon! It was all your fault!) was in her mid-20s at the time. 25 to be exact. Meanwhile, Famke Janssen is left with absolutely pittance, in the angry ex-wife role that is so incredibly beneath her. Former “Neighbours” star and former (?) popstar Holly Valance playing a pop tart is at least perfectly within her wheelhouse. Hell, it kinda is her wheelhouse exactly.

 

After a while I must admit that Neeson’s character started to get a tad silly for me. It’s good that his character is already knowledgeable in forms of violence and torture, but he seemed awfully varied in his knowledge. Whatever the situation called for, it seems he was unflappably capable of dealing with it. That really takes the film from something resembling merely the plot of a latter day Steven Seagal film, to actually being a Steven Seagal film with someone else in the lead instead. The film, up to a certain point had a bit of grit to it that simply didn’t mesh with the superheroics of the latter stages of the film at all, where there was simply no tension because you know Neeson is just going to be way too good. I know I don’t like dour, serious vigilante movies, but this one just got a bit too silly. That’s not a deal-breaker, though, it’s really the pacing that’s the killer. It just took too long to get going.

 

I didn’t hate this, it’s more of a standard action flick than a hardcore vigilante flick, and Liam Neeson is really good in the lead. However, it gets a little too silly, clichéd, and it’s extremely slow to begin with. That last one is really what holds this one back from getting a recommendation.

 

Rating: C+