I'm a huge Liam Neeson fan, and a huge fan of the first Taken. Despite this I wasn't sure that a sequel to Taken would turn out good. First of all a sequel was unnecessary, and movies that get unnecessary sequels (The Hangover, The Mummy) usually suffer in the long run because the sequels never live up to the original movie. Well turns out I was right, Taken 2 never lives up to the first movie and just feels unnecessary. But that doesn't mean that the movie isn't enjoyable. It's a decent action flick and it will keep you watching to the end, but you'll notice that it lacks the punch and originality that the first movie had. In the end I enjoyed the movie even though it felt like a generic action flick with a spectacular cast. In closing I just want to say this to whoever is in charge of these kinds of things, do NOT make a Taken 3. You got lucky this time but don't push your luck with a 3rd movie.… Expand

It's a fairly routine story, but Neeson and Grace do a nice job as action-hero and action-hero's willing acolyte-daughter. Grace has actually come a long way since her Lost days - her likeability has increased in a significant way. And she just pops on the screen. I thought that the crux of the story was given short shrift. "I don't care that my son was a horrible kidnapper - your blood must flow through the hills of my home town because you killed him!" It lacked a certain righteous indignation. Tough to get behind his massive endeavor here. And the minor twist at the end, if you can call it that? So predictable. Should have been omitted. A good time, but nothing extremely special.… Expand

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

Feeling listless in a lacklustre season for cinema-goers, I simply yearn for the smell of the multiplex and it had been almost one month since my last visit, so TAKEN 2 has been singled out in view of that I had a mildly positive viewing from its first one (TAKEN 2008, 7/10), and action-packed thriller will at least not be a bore (a sad truth is that here is so difficult to find non-dubbed animation features, otherwise the selection would be much wider).

Being an emblematic sequel relying on the same gambit and stunts to pass through its running time, TAKEN 2 can hardly be called satisfactory, thanks to the rapid editing and effective camera rotation (another tact being overdone here), the gawky Liam Neeson still can render a patina of a sleek special agent, all his moves are pertinent and deadly fatal, nevertheless, reaching 60-year-old, perhaps his next invitation (apart from TAKEN 3, according to its groundbreaking first weekend bravura, a sequel is undoubtedly on the slate now) will be sent from Stallion's THE EXPENDABLES tawdries, and one thing is for sure, he will not be the oldest. Maggie Grace and Famke Jansen both have earned more screen-time, but hardly have any decent time to be composed enough to deliver some jolly one-liners. The plain storyline has efficaciously implemented the genre fun in the most predictable manner (also an over-simplified one), for example, the special knacks (throwing the grenades among the shacks, counting the seconds to remember the route of the vehicle while being blindfolded) required to locate the whereabouts are too far-fetched since Istanbul is not a remote village and most of the time, the whole scheme is made deliberately to facilitate the film to justify itself, screenwriters (Besson is implicated) simply don't care much to the details and the suspense has never been concocted absorbingly, no matter how many Albanian villains are mercilessly iced by our hero, himself, his ex-wife and daughter's safety has never been severely endangered, so supposedly all the pleasure should be derived from the unnecessary killing of the ferocious but mostly marginalised Albanian avengers, what's the point then?

Director Olivier Megaton is an action genre journeyman (COLOMBIANA, 2011; TRANSPORTER 3, 2008, 4/10), but this time it… 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

Why not make a sequel to one of the surprises of 2008? There's plenty more happening in the second outing for Bryan Mills, the retired CIA man who is obsessive, vigilant and on time precisely to the minute he said he would be.
But what the films premise does is bring an idea which so many other films leave out of the occasion, all the bad guys that are gunned down yet nobody seems to care about them? Incorrect in Taken 2. A mass funeral is being held for the unfortunate men who crossed Bryan in the first film, and revenge is on the agenda for the families of those he killed. But back in LA, Bryan is steadily moving closer to his ex- wife Lenore, played again by the beautiful Famke Janssen, while also continuing his overbearing but respected father routine to Kim Maggie Grace).
When he invites the two of them to Istanbul while he guards a Sheik, things take a turn when Bryan and Lenore are are out. Through careful instructions to his eventually safe daughter, he manages to work out where he and his ex-wife are being held, the process by which he does this may raise a few eyebrows..but it's quite a cleverly constructed scene that certainly gets all the characters more involved in this sequel.
No, it isn't as good as the first, but saying that it shouldn't entirely be viewed as a sequel, each character is given more involvement in this film to the point where it isn't entirely necessary to have seen the first, this perhaps may be a good thing because this isn't as engaging or surprising, we already know what lengths Bryan will go to, we know what he is capable of and quite frankly we don't see this sort of side to him in this film.
It's not so much a remake but maybe even a continuation without actually being a sequel. The same sort of edginess is gone and replaced with an array of doubling back efforts and countless chases, the emotional depth from the plot of the first film involving Kim being sold as a prostitute is gone, we no longer need to feel for these characters but just seem to be lead to enjoy the film without thinking about it.
Still a decent action flick with plenty to smile and talk about, but the film ultimately doesn't reach the surprising heights its predecessor did, much of the flare is gone, but again, worth a look anyway.… 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

Well. Well. Well. So many negative reviews and whatnot. Maybe this is because people didn't get anything new to see and there was not much of a slight suspense element which the first installment had. Whatever the case was, I am going to be totally honest here. I actually enjoyed watching the movie, it wasn't as great as the first one but, without a doubt, it is a good pastime. It isn't boring at all. Action sequences seem a little too over-stylish but overall, Taken 2 is a good film. Taken is a kind of film that doesn't need a sequel and I don't know why they made it, and they're in talks to make another one as well, who would be taken in that one? All three of them? And maybe they'll get killed this time for real. I'm up for another sequel if they come up with much, much better ideas and plot than Taken and Taken 2 combined. I always watch Liam Neeson's films because he is one of my very favorite actors and his performance never disappoints me, that's a plus point for this film. Of course, there are so many plotholes, some of them seem annoying like the one in US Embassy, that's ridiculous! In addition, the thing that annoyed me the most was that in the film, Kim is going through rooftops and throwing grenades and nobody gives a **** That's plain stupid. Long story short, if you still have to watch the film, don't expect much from it. I didn't and that worked for me. Well, almost!… Expand

Almost as good as the first one. I was surprised at how good it was and how well it lived up to Taken 1's standards. Hopefully their's not a third one because that would probabaly ruin it all.

I absolutely loved the first film and was concerned that they were just throwing together a money-grab with this sequel. The trailers all made it look like it was the exact same movie all over again. That couldn't have been further from the truth. Sure, it had a similar feel in terms of cinematic elements and action style but the plot was completely different and yet it tied into the first movie really well. I can't give the film a perfect rating because it felt like it lacked the same unique experience that made the first one so special. That's probably not fair but it's the truth nonetheless. I noticed that a lot of people disliked or were disappointed by this movie for some reason. That reason escapes me because I thoroughly enjoyed it and would think that anyone who loved the first movie would enjoy this movie too.… 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… Expand

You can all hate me all you want for saying this, but in all honesty, I thought that the first movie was very overrated. Unfortunately, this film was no better. Not to say that either of them were bad, however I would like to say that this movie honestly came out of nowhere. I wasn't even expecting a sequel in the first place, but a month or two before this movie was released, we got the trailer, the poster and everything. The filmmakers just shoved this in our face without any heads up or notice and said "Here you go!" basically. And on that note, it's no surprise that the whole film felt very rushed, half baked, and very careless. Liam was great and all, but the fact that he's 60 years old and he's still doing this is pretty insane. The action and car chases felt like complete rehashes from the first as well. But worst of all was the very messy script. It suffers majorly from ridiculous little bits, like when Maggie Grace is reduced to running around scared for two-thirds of the film throwing grenades all over the place, as well as doing a mediocre job of driving from the baddies when she doesn't even have a license in the film. Summing up, at only a couple minutes over an hour and a half, it doesn't get any more rushed than this. Sadly, this is just not Liam's year for movies.… Expand

Why is every goddamn critic hatin' on Taken 2? As long as I smash them with a bottle of whiskey, Taken 2 does not suck. It may look a little different on the first Taken, but Liam Neeson, he shouldn't need no stunt double. But he's 60-years-old, he's the Jackie Chan-meets-Bourne style of action movies. No signs on slowing down, that's all. I gotta get Taken 2 on Blu-Ray. Soon, it'll be Taken 3 or 4.… Expand

I was indeed wary that this might be not up to standards of the first film, but when I saw it, I thought it was better. It was a ridiculous storyline, but Liam Neeson was still up to par, as I enjoyed him doing what he does best. I could empathise with the characters properly, as I felt I was much more comfortable with Kim being a stronger character than in the last film, while the rest of the cast were still fully capable of committing to the plot. The ending certainly proved better worth than the previous film's ending.… Expand

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.

I was a big fan of the first TAKEN, which I consider one of the best action flicks in recent years. However, I am as skeptical for this sequel. It's gotta be crap and cynical money making venture to say the least. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the end result. Let's get the negative side of things first: a derivative storyline, this time it's the parents who got kidnapped (WOW!). The positive side: Liam Neeson. Pure and simple, he imbues a certain charisma in his role and he has great chemistry with his co-stars. The action sequences are pretty good and on par with the original. At the end of the day, see TAKEN 2 as 21st century facelift of an 70's/80's Action sub genre: the revenge pics, popularised by the Death Wish series and the like. It's a B-movie, with no 'fat' (AHEM..Bourne Legacy..)… Expand

Walking into

So...a pointless sequel right? Well you are almost there, you see Taken 2 didn't need to happen nor was it as good as its predecessor however it did not deserve the hate it received due to it still being a generally great action film.
Taken 2 starts in Albania where the families of some of the mobsters from the previous film live, tier dead bodies return home and their fathers brothers swear revenge on Brian and his family. Brian is now living a happy life with constant contact with his daughter Kim and is even building back his relationship with his ex-wife Lenore. On a trip to Istanbul the mobsters track the family down taking Brian and Lenore hostage. It is up to Kim to rescue them and Brian to put an end to this horrible affair once and for all.

Taken 2 ticks all the boxes for a great action film with a nicely tied together story. It has more action than Taken 1 and despite the lower age rating feels more brutal. The only real complaints I have are the overly choppy camera work and editing and that the story does still leave a few questions unanswered and a possibility (though not necessity) of a Taken 3.
Taken 2 is a great action movie and despite the generally negative and middling reviews still something you should pick up if you are a fan of the genre.… Expand

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!

Well it's hardly a surprise, but "Taken 2", despite its decent entertainment value, does not match the first one's calibre. Lacking a lot of the emotional weight and packed with fun but less thrilling action scenes, it tries to involve the daughter and mother more, but mostly results in it feeling a bit too watered down and underdeveloped. I'm happy I saw it, but for me, it comes far short of beating its predecessor, and I will probably not bother with any third installment they might be hoping to make.… Expand

As far as by the numbers revenge movies go,

I really enjoyed this movie. It is fairly quick pace and heavy on action with a light, but believable story thrown in. The action is superb overall. Furthermore, Liam Neeson is a great actor and he really makes the movie awesome. I would give it a 7.5 because while similar to the first it really isn't as good, mainly due to the story. The plot wasn't developed to a great depth and I found it a little lacking in the end. That being said it is still a great action flick to sit down and eat popcorn. Better than the Expendables 2; not quite as good as Total Recall (2012).… Expand

The original "Taken" was a classic example of a guilty pleasure film, that somehow ceased to be guilty because so many people found pleasure in it. "Taken 2", with its incomprehensible action sequences and a script possibly dumber than the first, will be far more of a guilty pleasure, as it never reaches the hilarious heights of the first one's Neeson rampage. Even so, the main reason the first one was such a success was that we got to see Neeson kill everyone while playing it completely straight, and that's still present here. There's even an interesting inversion of the first film's premise at one point. "Taken 2" is stupider than the first film, but luckily for this series, being stupid is one of its advantages.… Expand

Like "The Hangover: Part II" this is basically the same movie just in a different city. But after the first choppy and close up action scene I really enjoyed myself. It's just one of those films that you watch simply to watch, and will forget about it the moment you step out of the theater. It's not an awful movie, but it's clear this was a cash grab.

an obvious money grab of a movie. The plot meanders to a point where the flick is simply not believable. The action scenes and pace of the movie are enjoyable.

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