It may not be art, and it may not be original, but I loved it anyway. There are the requisite car chases, shoot-outs, and martial arts battles, as well as explosions and torture. Neeson battles an absolute ton of bad guys in set pieces that happen so quickly they're blink-and-you'll-miss-em. The action scenes are well-handled in an over-edited way, similar to the ones you'll find in Bourne and Bond these days.
2008 has been a pretty decent year for action flicks and this comes second to only RAMBO in terms of tension, suspense, and excitement. TAKEN wants to be a straightforward action flick, with plenty of thrills and spills, and it achieves its aims admirably. Criticism has been levelled against this movie, claims of racism, of it being another variant of the old "America's good, foreigners are bad" xenophobia, but these critics are looking too hard. I guess you might say the simple story is pretty predictable, but the story is never the strong point in these films anyway. He's one of the screen's hardest good guys as of late. Neeson's not everybody's first choice as an action hero but he's actually pretty good in the role – never for one moment do you not believe that he's capable of what he performs here.
There's a focus on realism throughout as well as a gritty edge that sees Neeson taking no prisoners in his search for his missing girl. The film is heavily influenced in both direction and style by the BOURNE movies, which is no bad thing as those films are among my favourites. TAKEN is essentially a revenge film that never shies or veers away from the main narrative thrust, which is that Liam Neeson must find his kidnapped daughter before she's sold by sex traffickers. It's a lean, mean movie, pared down to the essential elements and while it would be wrong to go in thinking of this as an epic, it's very good for what it is. Written by Luc Besson, who's responsible for just about every decent French action flick in the last decade, and directed by Pierre Morel who also directed DISTRICT 13, there was no real chance that TAKEN wouldn't be a decent thriller. Overall, above average but uneven and more a mixed to moderately liked sort of film.
The violence, while thrilling and well done on its own, tends to overpower the basic drama of the story, so things feel unbalanced. Despite it being fun, slick, gritty and generally taut, the story is far too predictable and gets far too far-fetched and over-the-top in the latter stages. The script also doesn't excite, descending into too much cheese and tedium and tending to lack clarity, subtlety. It is a shame though that, excepting Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen, the rest of the cast fail to match him or engage, being largely indifferent. Neeson is a very commanding presence on screen and there is energy to the directing. The sound effects are thrilling in authenticity and will leave one wincing in shock, with it adding hugely to the harrowing effect of the action.
There is enough taut suspense and fun to keep one gripped and the violence is uncompromisingly brutal and leaves one biting the nails. It's nicely scored, not intrusive but having presence, and the direction is solid. Really liked the rawness and slickness of the way 'Taken' was shot and edited, and the bleakness and grit of the rest of the production values suited the tone and genre perfectly. It entertains and intrigues, but doesn't wow. Enough of 'Taken' does work, or at least to me it did (not everybody will agree and that's fine by me), but also from personal opinion what could have been a pretty good film turned out to be an above average but uneven one that could have done much more with what it had. As was said regarding 2011's 'Unknown' recently, 'Taken's' potential wasn't fully lived up to. It is interesting for being one of Liam Neeson's first endeavours as an action hero, and considering that the trailer was an intriguing one and Neeson has always been very watchable and often very good the potential was there. Can see both sides, being one who was mixed to moderately liked the film. 'Taken' garnered mixed to average reviews critically and still is, looking at the reviews here, a film that divides audiences.