Taken (2009)

I’m sad to say that I didn’t enjoy this movie as much as so many people have. I felt it was extremely…average. It was just an average action film. It reminded me of Unstoppable, where the film just feels average, and I would be much happier with the film if my expectations were lower. And my expectations would be lower if every person I’ve talked to that’s seen the film didn’t love it like it was the best film of the year, but they did. And the film just isn’t great. At some moments, it doesn’t even feel good. It just feels meh. I’m going to tell you the plot of Taken, even though the film doesn’t care about it. The plot is that an ex-CIA agent’s (Liam Neeson) daughter is kidnapped in France, and he has to go get her. Yes, that is just about it. The rest of the film is just Liam Neeson fighting people. And while I am glad to see Liam Neeson in an action movie, I just wish he was in a good action movie. He is good in the role, but the role isn’t good back. There are moments where things are supposed to be tense, or emotional, and they’re just not. And that frustrated me a lot. I know a lot of people are going to give me hate for not liking this film as much as a lot of people did, but I don’t care. This movie just wasn’t as filling as it should be. It just felt underwhelming. And that really made me sad. Also, near the end of the film, there is one of the single most unsettling scenes I have seen in a while. And if you’ve seen the film, you will know what I mean. I’m not going to spoil it, because it is important to the climax. It’s not supposed to be upsetting (or maybe it is…), but I found that it was. Either way, due to the commercial success of the film, there are talks about making Taken II. Oh, boy.
5.5/10