You know he’s going to find you, how far will he go though?
Bryan Mills is a former ‘worker’ for the United States government. His job? No one knows, but he describes it as ‘preventing problems’. Retired now, and wanting to get closer to his family, Bryan finds himself overbearing in an attempt to get to know his daughter. When he reluctantly signs a permission slip, with his ex-wife, for his daughter to go to France, he soon finds out his overbearing nature was just an alarm saying something is probably going to go wrong. Hearing his daughter kidnapped, he finds himself in a race against time to locate her before he loses her.
Intense action! Those are the two words that describe this film. When I saw the trailer for Taken my first question was, “Who the hell would dare kidnap Liam Neeson’s daughter in a film?” You have to have wheelbarrow size balls to do that. Neeson is an intimidating presence onscreen. He proved it in Batman Begins and proved it in the 90s with Rob Roy (not so much with Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace). I knew that whatever character he was playing, he was going to deliver pain to the bad-guy without a second thought. You know what? I wasn’t disappointed. Not only did the action get quick and furious from the get-go,but it never let up; not even towards the end of the film. You’re taken on a horrifying action ride where Neeson’s Bryan is literally on a tight clock to find his daughter in a foreign country. He doesn’t leave anyone behind that doesn’t deserve to be killed. It’s brutal, which makes it a lot more believable.
Speaking of which, let’s discuss story.
Going back to the trailer, I had a hard time figuring out why in the world someone would kidnap his daughter. Could it be enemies he knows? Could it be his former team? What could really be a great reason that would make the audience connect with his position? Is this Commando 2 (so kidding, someone compared it to Commando this week and it made me giggle a bit)? Whatever the reasoning, it had to be good. Was it? Not only was it good, but it was believable. The reason behind the kidnapping is more than horrifying; it literally made me want to go wake up my daughters and hug them. I’m not going to give it away, but it’s worth the viewing. Now, with that said, the methods in which he found his daughter is good for the most part. I say that because there is one particular moment in the film where there is a little bit of a device used to bridge the story together. Monty Python always made fun of a ‘device’ that stories used to explain when things happen. In The Life of Brian, you’ll see Brian fall from a Roman look-out, if he hits the ground he dies. Just before he dies, a UFO swoops down and rescues him, finds its way into space, gets into an intergalactic war, the ship is damaged, it crashes to Earth and Brian is the sole survivor. Because of that UFO, Brian’s story continues. You’ll find one particular moment, not as strong as that, where you’ll say, “That’s where they taped it together.” Other than that moment, the movie is solid. The ending sucks a bit, but as a whole it’s mostly solid.
Is there anything, outside of the ending, that I didn’t like? I think I wished secretly that Bryan punched his ex-wife or at least gloated in the fact that he was right to be concerned by her going to France. Famke Janssen, whom I loved in the X-Men film, annoyed me to no end. If Mills had whipped out a gun and taken her out, I would have forgiven him. Her character was there to play opposite of Mills, but in the end she was just like him, completely overbearing with their daughter. The parody is hilarious and director Pierre Morel (who did a great job) should have seen this and cut it down a bit.
Other than that, the film is absolutely exhilarating from beginning to almost end.
Don’t feel Blu, you probably deserved it
I have always said that action films benefit the most from the HD upgrade and Taken is just another example of that. It looks brilliant, it moves well on an HDTV and it does everything a good action film should do (gives you some awesome locales with some hardcore action). With that said, if there are going to be any senses that benefit from HD the most it has to be the audio. Coming through a 7.1 sound system you’re going to be awestruck. You’ll hear all the painful stabs, the beautiful firing of guns at the bad guys and gorgeous explosions during a feisty chase scene that will leave your ears begging for more.
As for features, here’s what you’re looking at:
– Theatrical and Extended Cut of the Film
– Commentary on extended cut by director Pierre Morel, Cinematographer Michel Abramowicz and Stunt Sup. Michel Julienne
– Commentary on extended cut by Co-screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen
– Le Making of Featurette
– Avant Premiere Featurette
– Inside Action Side-by-Side Scene Comparisons
– Black Ops Field Manual
– Digital Copy