Everything that made the first film so good in gone. The writing is terrible, The acting is awful (Liam Neeson being the only good one), and it was incredibly corny and stupid. Not worth watching at all imo.

Taken 2 is unbelievably disappointing. It starts out promisingly; the hero is just as likable as in first film and the new villain has a sensible, efficient motivation. Unfortunately, the film goes badly wrong when the action starts. The fights and car chases that follow are all generic and unexciting. Worse still, some of the logic in the movie is stupefying... A girl without a driver's license can suddenly drive like Jason Bourne, repeatedly setting off grenades in a metropolitan area does no damage and alerts minimal security and apparently, driving through a US embassy checkpoint at high speed, thus causing soldiers to open fire warrants no detention or subsequent investigation. What a total mess of a movie! The first one was classic. This one is utter jank.… Expand

I went into this movie expecting a brainless but fun action film. Well all i got was brainless. This movie wasn't even fun. I'm a big Liam Neeson fan, especially when hes kicking ass and honestly the action sucked in this sequel to the overrated but fun first entry into the series. I even think im being generous giving it a 3. I'm not one to look for believability in a movie like taken 2 but come on, some of the crap was unbearable. The daughters using fregen grenades and nobody in istanbul seems to give a crap like chicks chuck grenades around the city on a daily basis, and how the daughter who keep in mind has failed her road test 3 times as was mentioned earlier in the film, all of a sudden becomes the worlds best getaway driver in this seemingly indestrcutible taxi that no matter what it crashes into there will never be a scratch on it. It was just unbearable. I'll give it a 3/10 which is definitely being more than generous, don't waste your time or hard-earned money!… Expand

Released in 2008, Taken came out of nowhere to earn $145 million at the box office on just a $25 million budget. The movie-going public recognizes fresh material when they see it. Taken was original, creative, driven, and hosted one of the most memorable protagonists in recent memory. Of course they would have to make a sequel to wring some more money out of Taken's fans.

A review of a movie sequel which starts outs praising the first installment instead of the new story is most likely not going to be very kind to the unfortunate title which ends in the number 2. Taken 2 keeps Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills, Famke Janssen as his ex-wife Lenore, and the always relentlessly annoying Maggie Grace as his daughter Kim. Rule of thumb - if Maggie Grace is cast in your film, it will probably stink. This is her second feature film in 2012, after Lockout, so she is 0-2 this year. The bad guys are also mostly the same; they are the extended family of the first group of Albanians Bryan killed after they kidnapped his daughter and sold her into sex slavery. Now they want revenge; they must honor their dead sons and brothers. It doesn't matter that their sons and brothers were human traffickers, rapists, and murderers. Family honor is family honor ya know? Bryan is growing close with his family again. After a few days of work in Istanbul as a heavily armed bodyguard, Byran invites Lenore and Kim to Turkey to take in the sights and relax in a very posh hotel. Fortunately for the Albanians, this is where they are going to kidnap Bryan, transport him back to Albania, and torture him to death. The introduction of mom and daughter is a cherry on top for the head bad guy Murad (Rade Serbedzija). He is older with grey hair; I mention this because all of the other couple dozen bad guys run together, he is the only one you will remember. In Taken, Bryan had it comparatively easy. He had one person to save and could methodically move through the ranks of thugs as he stabbed and shot his way to the top. Now, not only does he have to watch his own back, he must save both mom and daughter, sometimes alternating which one he can help at any given moment.

The original Taken was so good because of Bryan's practical and purposeful methods of extracting information, Neeson's deadpan delivery, and the ins and out of seedy Paris locales. Now take everything which made Taken a great movie and divide it by two. You already know the story, you know Bryan will talk slowly and concisely about how he has certain skills, and this time you get to suffer a bit more because Maggie Grace gets more screen time. The camera work also takes a nosedive during hand to hand combat. The camera shakes, jumps up and down, does some jumping jacks, and the average edit is probably .002 seconds. The audience has no hope of logically following who is punching whom or where a new bad guy springs up from. Scenes where Bryan fights with a loaded pistol are much easier to watch.

It's not that I'm mad at writer Luc Besson or director Olivier Megaton; they probably were under a lot of pressure to re-create the Taken magic. Unfortunately, they did not do a very good job. The story is only a bit laundered from the first one and everything else is merely imitation. Stay away from Taken 2, it will only remind you of its superior predecessor.… Expand

Be prepared for complete nonsense. The girl is not skillful enough a drive to get a driver's license in the US, yet towards the end she hops in a stick stick shift cab and is the world's best getaway driver. Liam Neeson is detained and cuffed but left alone for hours to find himself away out while guiding his daughter towards him with using a cellphone he had because he was not stripped searched. Albanian's conversing exclusively in English. Grenades being thrown out of hotels and no police response whatsoever. The direction and editing is similarly terrible, the overuse of shaky-cam unbearable… Collapse

I found this film to be just stupid. From the grenade throwing to the driving scenes to the pointless villains, there needed to be a different script. Liam Neeson is still good here, but I could have done with less of the family.

Why! It was a great movie, why ruin it with this piece of **** Only the acting is good! Nothing else, not all sequels are good sometimes terrible follow great! This is one of great to terrible, two thumbs down!

As far as by the numbers revenge movies go,

Taken 2 is a sequel that ignored everything that was so much fun about the first movie, and decided to be a predictable waste of cash. I was a big fan of the first film because it was simple entertainment and Liam Neeson was perfect for the role, but now they have done the exact same thing all over again, but now he has brought his ex-wife into the mix. When I first heard they were going to make a sequel to Taken I was kind of excited because I hoped they would make it as fun as the first one, but sadly I was wrong. It does give some fun action scenes and Liam Neeson is still great in the role, but it does not make up for its pathetic story that was just an excuse to make some cash off the entertaining first movie. I mean we all have seen sequels that Hollywood only made to earn some cash, but here we see a movie that took absolutely no effort to write or think about. I think the writers just said "how can we take a fun movie and make a sequel that has no reason to exist" and they created this dull and lazy sequel. I didn't enjoy this sequel, and it depresses me that they took away everything that I loved about the first movie.… Expand

Not only this sequel is unnecessary, it lacks all that which made the original outstanding. What was the original Taken about in the first place? It was about Liam Neeson kicking some serious ass in a very realistic and believable way. Here it seems like it's not Neeson himself, but his double or something. The fight scenes are awkward, poorly staged and feature an honest-to-god awful operator job, where you can''t really make out a single freaking thing. What's more, the dialogues are stupid and (in my opinion, at least) poorly acted out. The final nails in the coffin are bloody disgusting CG effects (I almost vomited at that car explosion) and the dumbass main villain. The thing is, the answer to this quality drop is quite obvious the director changed. Now it's Olivier Megaton, the f**khead who brought us Transporter-3, it makes sense. So please, if there'll be yet another unwanted sequel, either make it straight-to-DVD so I won't even hear of it or return Pierre Morel to the director's seat.… Expand

This film did ok for the actors but for a movie that had a succesful rating for the first film this was dissapointing. the diretors and writers of this film did well with the location and scrips but as soon as the film started to pick up all u can expect is a relax in your chairs and not at all close to a thriller. this film for me personally was not worth the money i spent.

Let's talk more generally about the trend in Luc Besson's films, in particular those written with Robert Mark Kamen. They are going downhill fast -- and faster. It's one thing to have a sequel here or there, and another to mail it in as RMK is doing.

Where as the first one succeeds in keeping you at the edge of your seat as you are watching a race against the time and have no idea where the movie will be going next, part 2 is predictable, over the top, run of the mill sequel that fails much more often then it succeeds. Favorite bit from the movie - daughter is struggling trying to get her licence. 2 weeks later she is racing like a maniac through narrow streets of Istanbul in a Mercedes with a manual.… Expand

Well, you know, the first was great, but as usual sequels go on, this movie got me to think at one time "Does this even have a point?". It was kind of stupid, honestly, but because of the action sequences it brings, I'm gonna give it a 4, not to give it the red label.

The whole time I was watching this movie I was waiting for the next big action scene. All I saw was a bunch of Liam Neeson chasing around his ex wife. An extremely disappointing sequel to a movie I really enjoyed.

Taken 2 is not really a movie were you need a sequel. For me its a one liner. Its like making Titanic 2!? It runs out in cliches and do the same stuff he does in the first part. Its a okay action movie. If you can get the dvd for 5$, do it and watch it. But i don't think you'll watch it a multiple times.

To be fair, when I heard there was going to be a second Taken I was very skeptical. Taken was a great film, but Taken 2? One of the worst experiences of sitting through a movie I have witnessed. Not only is the story line boring, and a little stupid, but it rushes and before I knew it we were at the end of the movie. I didn't find myself understanding the motive behind kidnapping Neeson's ex-wife in the film played by Famke Janssen. Yeah, okay, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) killed your son, but your son also kidnapped numerous American female tourists and forced them into prostitution. It didn't make a lot of sense to me. On top of this the acting performances were putrid at best. The only thing I can appraise is Taken 2's use of Mills', "specific skills," along with with the small action based scenes. This movie was clearly made for profit, but they should have put some quality work into it is all that I'm saying.… Expand

some movies just can't have sequels. other then the amazing Liam Neeson acting and Istanbul, every thing else is just so ridiculously crap. story line and plot so predictable. especially if you have watched the first one Taken, which was a good average movie, then this would be extremely difficult to watch.

Great acting and casting BUT it still managed to be the biggest disappointed so far. Taken is a kind of movie that don't need a sequel. Oh well, I guess they wanted to milk the cash cow. The biggest problem was with the story. Why would the enemies go after him and his family AGAIN? I mean didn't they already learn their lesson from the first film. The way the action sequences were edited was terrible. You couldn't tell who was punching whom and who was getting hit. Every half a second they would cut to another shot. It was painful to watch. Stay away from Taken 2.… Expand

This movie is appalling. From the opening credits you can tell it's going to be terrible, acting seems extremely forced and at times very cringe-worthy. Too many close-ups of the daughter's cleavage and bum thrown in for no reason. Product placement is beyond un-subtle and the story is just laughable. The ending is also terrible and the music general action nonsense lacking the emotional punch of the first. Basically, a great movie has been ruined by a simply terrible sequel simply to cash in on our love for the first.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. What I don't understand, is how people thought the first movie was good. Rooster Teeth named Taken their 'Movie of the Year'. It was too predictable. If a guard turned right down a corridor, Liam Neeson would come from the left. The editing was unbearably atrocious. The writing seemed like the movie was filmed on the first draft. Taken 2 was no different. It is the kind of movie that is something to laugh at on the drive home. First off, the editing. During the fight scenes, it was like trying to play pin the tail on the donkey. You can't tell who is who until the scene is over. You may as well close your eyes and listen to the soundtrack. Which that in it self is nothing new. Like pretty much every single action movie today, the soundtrack is made up of the violin family. With the addition of a synthesizer. It makes the movie seem dull and cliche. Which it needs no help doing.

Lastly, the writing. I could of gone and seen The Expendables 2 and gotten a better plot line. In fact. There is barely any plot line at all. It's all 'Hey lets shoot everyone that sounds Turkish!'. The scene where Kim and Brian are in the taxi and burst into the US Embassy. What was the point in that! They weren't being followed. The last car got blown up by the train.

The only thing on the writing side I can give them credit for is when they are setting off grenades to tell how far away they are from each other. That was clever. Just the fact that there would be police swarming the streets.

This is a movie that will leave you red faced after the amount of face palms you do...… Expand