Liam Neeson makes a formidable action hero in Taken
Taken is nothing we have haven't seen before; other Luc Besson-produced action features, i.e. especially Kiss of the Dragon, follow the relatively similar plot of somebody going to France (or already being there) and getting in a whole bunch of shit, simply put. But also, as with Luc Besson's filmography, Taken is well-shot, well-acted, and generally well-written action piece making for an experience that feels both fresh and positively old-school at the same time, mostly on part to the hunter-killer performance of Liam Neeson.
The action, serving as a point of contention and debate, is evidently the meat of the film. The meddling first act has some unrealistically smooth dialogue and full-out stock sequences, as when Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) awakes from a flashback/home-video sequence. But once Mills goes into CIA/Spy/OO-Agent or, as he calls it, "preventer" mode (transitioned by a clunky, but admittedly memorable speech), is when Taken really 'takes' us for the ride we've been waiting for. The action, while overtly remisincent to the modern Bourne/Bond/Batman archetype, still feels innovative, invigorating. The sequences have a Rambo-esque length to them and seem to take us up and down and all around Paris locales. Mills chops, shoots, and barks his way through a faceless labyrinth of baddies, outsmarting and outmaneuvering even those aiding him. The most effective scenes are the instances where he gets truly nasty (the best of which I will surely not spoil), to the point where we want him to go even further (the torture sequence, pictured above, feels a relative letdown compared to the spontaneous viscerality he displays at other points in the film).
Neeson's Mills is more machine than human, and this is the struggle that drapes the entire film. In the beginning, we see him trying to come closer to his daughter (Maggie Grace), and after her brutish kidnapping, we see him revert to the Machiavellian machine he really is. This is where Taken works, though necessarily bookended by a passable beginning and by-the-numbers touching finish. Director Pierre Morel and Besson craft another seemingly 'alternative' action flick, which may just be a little more familiar than we realize. Yet, above all, it is the usually monotonous Neeson—a quality which works to his advantage here—who commandeers the action with his strangely real performance.
*** out of ****
~ Patrick Fryberger
