Effort is Evident

Bryan: [to Marko] You don't remember me? We spoke on the phone two days ago. I told you I would find you.


Former spy Bryan Mills allows his daughter to take a summer away in Europe but upon her arrival she is kidnapped by a group of men. Bryan must get to Europe and save his daughter before it is to late. Bryan must use his old set of skills to get the job done and make sure his daughter returns home safetly.

Taken has all the makings for a good film but somehow along the lines it does not quite get to being an elite film. When you think about what elite films do, they make you think, the immerse you with conflict and you want to know how it will end. Taken just does not do that. Perhaps it is because Bryan walks around as if he is a one man army and takes down all challenges that stand in his way. I do not know what it is about Taken for me that stops it from becoming one of my favourites.

Bryan: You either give me what I need or this switch will stay on until they turn the power off for lack of payment on the bill.

Bryan just has this way of getting the answers to his questions. I think the whole concept should have been approached in a different way. The concept of human trafficing was a good one, which is why putting to much focus on Bryan and his world class abilities took away from the great plot concepts they were working with. To me when a film focuses squarely on one man then there is no room to notice everything that is taking place. I would have much prefered a story where they were focusing on the inner workings of the men involved with abducting these women. Perhaps a story of an undercover cop trying to gain information on these guys would have been better, with a subplot where her father is trying so desperately to get her back that he himself is willing to work with an undercover cop. I really wanted to like Taken and I did buy into the concept but the whole one man army of revenge never really satisfied me.

Taken does have flare and style with the action it produces, and I can clearly see why action fans love this film. There should have been more purely emotional drama in this film. It would have helped solidfy the whole idea of the grieving parent. Taken does keep you cheering and hoping for Bryan because what happened to his daughter is never a good thing so the filmmakers knew they could get the audience to sympathize with his situation.

When it comes down to deciding whether Taken is a good film or not you cannot help but say it is. It has good acting a good concept and it has style. The things they could improve on or work on is a matter of opinion but when looked upon as a whole film even the most skeptical of people cannot deny that Taken is atleast a good effort.

7/10