ANALYSIS:

It is a year after TAKEN 2, Bryan Mills is still worried about his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) after she was taken and he rescued her.  He wants her to pass her driving test (she failed it twice) and his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) is having marriage problems with her husband.  Bryan suggests that Lenore and Kim come to spend time with him in Istanbul, Turkey after his three day security job is done.  They decide to come out to surprise him, but their happiness is short-lived when the father of one of the guys Bryan killed in the first film comes for revenge.   He and Lenore are taken and Bryan warns Kim to hide, but she is soon into helping rescue Bryan from the men who want to kill Bryan.   

 

TAKEN 2 is full of action and the character of Kim actually gets to do some stuff as she is on the run from the bad guys while trying to find a way to help her dad.   The sequel isn't as intense as the first film, but the action scenes will please action film junkies.  Also the cinematography shows off quite a bit of Istanbul, but I wish a little more went into the script to heighten the tension which I feel was a little lacking in this film compared to the first TAKEN (the trailer looks more exciting than the finished film).   I know they want to make a TAKEN 3 and they will have to take the series in a different direction since the one good idea to follow up TAKEN has been made into a movie.  Olivier Megaton still excels at directing action scenes and I can't wait to see what will be included in the unrated extended cut (because some violence was edited and some of the relationship scenes were cut to make it PG-13 for US audiences).   I do wish 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures would stop insisting on having Luc Besson films being edited for PG-13 to pursue the mythic wider audience at the box office.

 

TAKEN 2 is enjoyable for the action scenes directed by Megaton (who does have one of the coolest last names for a director) and see Liam Nesson kick some butt.  Still it isn't as good as the first film and I hope they come up with a really good idea because I fear a second sequel might dilute the well of ideas for Bryan Mills too much.

 

The unrated cut adds six additional minutes to the length of TAKEN 2 which results in extra violence, one new scene, and one extended scene.  It doesn’t really add anything to a mediocre sequel.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES: 

The alternate ending features some changes in the third act which takes away from the car chase and the motivation Mills has for going after the bad guys.  A couple of the deleted scenes are also featured in this alternate third act.   The five deleted scenes don’t add much to the film and some are cut for pacing reasons.

 

BLACK OPS FIELD MANUAL is a black ops trivia track that also tracks the locations in the movie, miles traveled, and number of people killed/ injured.

 

SAM’S TOOLS OF THE TRADE is a tour of the things in Mills briefcase which has all of his tools of the trade that are used in the movie.

 

FX MOVIE CHANNEL PRESENTS: IN CHARACTER WITH LIAM NESSON- Liam Nesson talks about Taken 2 in this five minute interview

 

Rounding out the extras are a theatrical trailer and previews for other Fox releases.

 

The Blu-ray release also includes a digital copy of the movie and a DVD version of the TAKEN 2 theatrical cut.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:   TAKEN 2 is a disappointing sequel and the deleted scenes and alternate ending show it could have been worse than the end result.

 

This blu-ray review is (c)1-18-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com