Taken

Taken

After a trailer like that, how could you not want to see it?
When I first saw the preview for Taken attached to Punisher: War Zone, I was stoked. Luc Besson (of Leon the Professional and La Femme Nikita fame) produced this thriller which has little on logic, less on plausibility, and loads of ass-kicking. Director Pierre Morel previously worked as either camera operator or cinematographer on several of Besson's work, and his previous directorial effort is the parkour-centered thriller District B13. His latest effort is less fantastic than that film, but no less implausible...and no less fun.
The plot concerns Liam Neeson's Bryan Mills' (a retired special ops agent) growing concern over his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace). Bryan and his wife Lenore (an underused Famke Janssen) are divroced, and she married to a rich businessman who spoils Kim and is undeinably charismatic (much to Bryan's chgrin). Kim takes a trip with her friend Amanda to Europe, intending to backpack throughout the continent while tracing thetour of U2, all while an unsuspecting yet anally worried Bryan worries about his daughter.
However, his worries prove to be founded as Amanda and Kim are kidnapped by white slavers. Using a recorded telephone call from Kim as a clue, Bryan has 72 hours to find his daughter before she is sold and he never finds her again. In order to find her he fights, chases, tortures, and drives cars into boats and Schindler kills hundreds of bad guys. And I loved it.
Neeson carries the film alot better than I'd expected, and that's saying a lot. The leading man in an action film is a new role for him, and the release date of the film gave me reservations (the first month or two of the year are usually dumping grounds for bad movies that can't get higher-profile releases). Neeson propels the film with an unerring energy, and his persona helps give Mills' world-weariness a visible reality. Neeson looks dogged and tired, having seen too much unspeakable horror...and that helps greatly with this film.
Unfortunately, I couldn't remember many of the secondary characters' names (and a lot of them looked too similar...blame that on ethnocentrism if you must), which is a shame because there were many standouts and none seemed to milk their scenes or ham it up (something that could have easily happened). And despite Famke Janssen's underused Lenore (why cast her and then not use her so much? I guess she's got to eat too...), and a few improbable situations (Mills at one point gets hit with a car and then shot...and just limps away), none of these gripes kept me from enjoying the film. (Oh, and I couldn't help but find Bryan exceedingly protective of his daughter. Sure, he was right about the world being a dangerous place...but he was WAAAAYYYY too protective and anal towards her even before the plot started rolling; and what was it with ALL the villains being Middle Eastern?)
Michel Abramowicz's cinematography provides a very cool palatte for much of the film once the action starts, with very saturated colors and vibrant lighting in the opening scenes and coda (a distinction which accentuates the dangerous foreign territories with the relative security of civilian life stateside). Abramowicz's fine cinematography also provides a picturesque view of the settings, showcasing the beautiful vistas and the grungy underworlds with equal attention to detail. The production design by Hugues Tissandier allows for a very grungy, dirty, gritty feel to the world in which these characters live, which, again, helps the story.
However, it is Morel who is to be applauded here. He shapes the script (written by Besson and Robert Mark Kamen) into a sparse, action-oriented thriller. Morel knows how to shoot a chase scene, how to shoot a fight scene, and how to pace the film expertly (finally! An action movie that knwos to put the camera far enough back, and to cut slow enough, for me to know what the hell is going on!). It is apparent that his prior work with Besson allowed him to hone his directorial skills.
I suppose the praise I heap upon this film is earned not only on the part of the filmmakers (obviously), but also on the audience with whom I saw this film. I saw this in Puerto Rico during my spring break earlier this year, and my girlfriend was with me (of the selections playing, this was the best). The theatre was moderately full (there were a few rows of empty seats), and we were relieved when the film had subtitles and wasn't dubbed (I could understand Spanish...but not that well). And, well, the audience loved the movie; their reactions really ramped up the experience for me and made me enjoy it that much more. Normally theatre audiences (at least most of the theatres I go to) tend to ruin the movie with their cell phones and texting and babies and blah blah blah...but these people, like us, were there just to see a kick-ass movie. And, well, again, it helped me enjoy the film that much more. If every movie-going experience were like this, I'd go every weekend (and if I had to money to do so, of course...)
As soon as this film comes out on DVD I'm picking it up (although it presumably already is, it was released in Europe over a year ago...), and I suggest you do the same if you love action movies and watching historical figures blow up bad guys.

Once again, leave it to Besson to show us how action movies should be made.