Liked it
Taken
While the characters’ motivations certainly bring up issues worth discussion, the plot and characters may have become much deeper with a different background for the antagonists.
Just finished watching Taken. I cannot say I was disappointed, but I was not fully satisfied either. In case you have missed the trailers, which seemed to be all over TV the last week or two, the story is centered on retired CIA operative and striving father Liam Neeson. Liam’s character places his concerns about his seventeen-year-old daughter traveling to Paris aside and signs a permission slip allowing her to travel outside the States. Upon the daughter’s arrival in Paris, she and one friend are almost immediately “taken”. I’m not sure how I feel about the immediacy of the kidnapping. A part of me needed a little more buildup, and the scene, which is well done, is exactly what you see in the split up trailers that have been running on television. Liam immediately travels to Paris once his former CIA colleagues alert him as to the nature of the motives of his daughter’s kidnappers and his former coworkers also inform our protagonist that he has a mere 96 hours to find his daughter before she is gone, forever. So the stage is set, and the rest of the movie follows Liam’s actions to find his daughter.
The Good
A pretty original and good story comparatively speaking. A fun and attention grabbing film for a January. Liam’s character sort of reminds me of a grown up, fatherly Jason Bourne.
The Bad
Short movie, yet I suppose it had to be. The movie ended with me wanting a little more. I’m quite sure what that little more is, but the ending seemed abrupt. Possibly, the background or motivations of the kidnappers was kind of so so. While their motivations certainly bring up issues worth discussion, the plot and characters may have become much deeper with a different background for the antagonists.
