Thursday, January 8, 2015

My Review of the Taken Franchise

        With Taken 3 hitting theaters this weekend I thought it would be appropriate to review the first two films in the franchise. So without further ado...





Taken
The word TAKEN written vertically in red, alongside a man is running towards the viewer.

        An ex-soldier (played by Liam Neeson) traveling through Europe embarks on a frantic quest to rescue his daughter (played by Maggie Grace) after the young girl is abducted by slave traders.

        This is a really fun movie. Liam Neeson is one of my favorite actors and I think that this is his best performance since his Oscar nominated work for Schindler's List back in 1993. I also really like the action in the film which was really spectacular and it keeps you on the edge of you seat. One problem with the film is that a lot of the cast is underused and that's really sad because there is a talented supporting cast in the film but you can hardly tell when the entire film is focused on one person. Another problem is that the film is so predictable I mean you can pretty much guess what is going to happen throughout the entire movie. Plus some of the dialogue is pretty choppy and doesn't make a lot of sense. Overall the movie is intense and it gets a great performance out of a great actor,but it's so predictable that you feel letdown by the movie. I give Taken a 6,5 out of 10.




Taken 2
Taken 2 Poster.jpg

        Bryan Mills (played by Liam Neeson), the retired CIA agent with a "particular set of skills" who stopped at nothing to save his daughter Kim from kidnappers. When the father of one of the villains Bryan killed swears revenge, and takes Bryan and his wife (played by Famke Jamssen) hostage in Istanbul, Bryan enlists Kim (played by Maggie Grace) to help them escape. Bryan then employs his unique tactics to get his family to safety and systematically take out the kidnappers, one by one.

        This movie is complete trash. Taken 2 does everything that a lot of sequels do that worked the first time and just repeat for the next film. The filmmakers just took everything that was great from the first film and just reuse and that makes the film sloppy and just boring because we've already seen everything and know what is going to happen. Everyone in the film is pretty much phoning it in for a paycheck and they act like they don't care. I will say that the action in film was up to par with the first film. Overall the sloppy rehash of the first film and just the horrible script make the film really disappointing. I give Taken 2 a 0.5 out of 10.


Overall Average Franchise Rating: 3.5 out 10

        So ladies and gentlemen what are you thoughts about the Taken franchise, are you excited for Taken 3 and what did you think of my review? Let me know in the comments section below and let your voice be heard.

                                                                                                                           Jonah Sparks

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