Technical assessment: 3.5
Moral assessment: 2.5
CINEMA rating: V 18
In this sequel to the successful Taken where Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) rescues his kidnapped teen daughter from white slavery, Brian is shown contented with running his own security firm and with his relationship with his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) and his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen). When he comes to learn about the emotionally harrowing ordeal Lenore is going through with her new man, Brian invites mother-and-daughter to come along with him to Istanbul where they can have a holiday while he attends to business. However, Murad Krasniqi (Rade Serbedzija), father of the man Brian had killed in rescuing his daughter from abductors, has traced Brian’s tracks. Mad for revenge for the death of his son, Murad summons a slew of Albanian thugs to hunt down Brian. Only this time, it will not be Kim’s life alone that’s endangered. The avengers want to kill Brian as well, but not before he witnesses the torture of his wife and his daughter.
Fast paced and tightly edited, Taken 2 will make you hold your breath from beginning to end. Some viewers may find it too violent, others may like how the movie pumps up the adrenals—whichever way you view it, it will not put you to sleep. It might even make you question its morality or it might even leave you gaping at the presence of mind and extra-extraordinary skills Brian displays (in that scene where he dictates to Kim what to do in order to find him).
Neeson is perfectly cast as a devoted father, and in the flow of events that allude to a reconciliation between him and Lenore, the viewer may forget about the price of such paternal devotion. It’s only a movie, of course, and it does give a clue as to the kind of life spies could lead unknown to their families, so let us not forget that in Taken 2, so much blood was shed, so many skulls smashed, necks broken, bodies thrashed about, and lives snuffed in the name of paternal devotion. At the bottom line, Taken 2 is about two fathers, each claiming love for his child. The question to discuss (perhaps with your children) is: how far should a father go to save his child?
