Taken Delivers Exactly What You Would Expect

If you’ve seen the trailer for Taken, the new film directed by Pierre Morel and co-written by Luc Besson (of La Femme Nikita, The Professional, and The Fifth Element fame), then you’ve essentially seen the movie. Liam Neeson stars as Bryan Mills, a spy/government agent/self-proclaimed “preventor of bad things” who retired early to try to reestablish a relationship with his teenaged daughter Kim. Against his wishes and with the blessing of his ex-wife Lenore (played by the lovely Famke Janssen), Kim goes to spend the summer in Paris with a friend. Mills explains that it’s not safe, there are bad things going on over there, etc., but does Kim listen to her secret agent man dad? Of course not, otherwise there would be no movie.

Almost immediately, Kim and Amanda are marked by a sleazy slimeball at the Paris airport and are abducted, drugged, and sold into prostitution. Mills learns from one of his old spy friends that statistically, if he doesn’t find his daughter within 96 hours, she will be lost forever. And so the ticking clock begins, and Mills must go into overdrive to track down the bad guys. This is a bare bones script that sets up the conflict and Mills’ dramatic quest almost immediately, and never deviates from it. There are no subplots in the movie, no padded scenes. It’s all about Mills’ quest, and, as he tells an ally (?) in the film, he will tear down the Eiffel Tower if he has to.

The action in this movie is shot and edited fast and furious. It just comes at you and is over before you can barely see what happened, not unlike the Bourne films or Steven Seagal when he was at his peak and not the Elephant Man of the Direct-to-DVD Universe he is today. There are some fun car chases, but the best action is the hand-to-hand combat fights (there are many) and the rapid-fire, glass shattering, diving shootouts.
The real treat of the movie, the reason to go see it, is to see Liam Neeson be an action hero. It is such an inspired piece of casting, because having a guy like Neeson brings so much credibility to a potentially ludicrous film. Neeson never winks at the camera, he never makes a joke. He’s grim and deadly and focused like a wild tiger the whole time. You completely believe that he can do the things he is doing, and that he will stop at nothing to find his daughter. I knew Liam Neeson could be a badass after seeing him hit it out of the park in Batman Begins (everybody on the planet raves about how incredible Heath Ledger was in The Dark Knight, but I truly believe Liam Neeson was just as fantastic a villain as Ras Al Ghul), but this movie allows him to step it up to a whole other level. I think Liam Neeson in Taken would mop the floor with Jason Bourne. His badass quotient is off the charts, and it’s a delight to watch.

That being said, the movie brings nothing new to the revenge/quest to save loved one genre. I still think Tony Scott’s Man on Fire 2004 remake with Denzel has set a benchmark for characterization, style and badassery that hasn’t been matched. Also, Famke Janssen is typically underused and downright wasted in this movie. Her role is anemic, and as the shrillish ex-wife who married a rich tool and whines about how Liam Neeson cared more about his country than his family, her character is one-note. I’ll tell ya, if I got Famke Janssen to be in my movie, I’d give her as much to do as possible.

But all in all this is a very entertaining, satisfying, quick movie that delivers exactly what you would expect, nothing more and nothing less. It’s not a must-see but action fans could sure do worse, and I really really hope Liam Neeson will do more stuff like this in the feature, because he’s fantastic.