“The making and legal distribution of this film supported over 14,000 jobs and involved over 600,000 work hours.” This statement at the very end of Taken 2’s credits was the only moment in the whole film that almost brought a tear to my eye. Fourteen thousand jobs – that’s honestly quite a heroic number and there is no way that I can now totally rip apart this masterpiece. I just hope all those workers got some percentage of the massive amount of money this film made (over 370 million dollars worldwide). There may be a time when this job-creation disclaimer may appear at the end credits (or opening credits) of all future films to evoke sympathy so that critics can be less harsh to a final product that is generic or forgettable. But putting sympathy aside, Taken 2 actually turned out to be an entertaining film but not even close to being in the same league as the first awesome one.

The second film is a like a bootleg copy of the first film with all the wonderful traits of a knock-off – not as good or thrilling as the first one. After Liam Neeson took revenge on sex-trafficking goons who kidnapped his daughter in Paris in Taken Part One, he’s now taking revenge on the family members of those sex-trafficking goons who have now kidnapped his wife in Taken Part Two. The only differences this time around are: the goons are chasing Liam Neeson & family in Istanbul, the editing of the fight choreography is worse, Neeson doesn’t really seem to care that his wife is kidnapped, and the villains aren’t that threatening unless you think a tiny jump-suited Albanian guy is scary.

The only redeeming element in this whole film is surprisingly Maggie Grace – the 30-year old teenager who almost ruined the first film. She has the most bad-ass scenes as all the climactic moments revolve around her in the middle of Taken 2. More mature, less squeaky, and not as annoying, Maggie Grace seems to be the only character that wants to help out her family in danger. As unrealistic as they may be, the scenes of her figuring out where her father is held hostage reminded me of one of the final “cat-and-mouse catch-a-terrorist” scenes near the end of Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty. She hides from goons on window ledges, she runs on roofs, and, the highlight of the film, she gets to chuck grenades all around rooftops of Istanbul. She is an obedient daughter – when her daddy Liam Neeson tells her to throw grenades all over town so that he can figure out where he’s been locked up, she unquestionably does it. Now that’s a good child. Funny and exciting stuff!

As tired as Liam Neeson seems in this film, he’s got some unintentionally funny moments here. As the film moves along, his fight choreography evolves from some pretty fancy moves to some simple ones. Director Olivier Megaton forgot to tell his audience that Liam Neeson used some Jedi mind tricks he learned from The Phantom Menace. By the end of the film, Neeson is killing goons by pushing a guy into the wall and by just gently touching someone’s head.

Taken 2 falls into the category of feeling like one of those 1980s sequels such as Death Wish 2 or Jaws 3 in which you think it’s a bad movie now but when you watch it many years later, you can’t help but be entertained. Even with Liam Neeson absolutely going through the motions just to get his paycheck, he’s still fun to watch. Just as his Bryan Mills character states “I’m tired” to the main villain, it’s obvious that he put all his inner rage into his character from The Grey last year, but he forgot to spread some of that fierceness into his other films of 2012 – Battleship, Wrath of the Titans and now Taken 2. But a tired Liam Neeson is still more pleasurable to watch than a young, hyper, and intense actor who tries too hard to make it big in Hollywood.

20th Century Fox has provided a beautiful-looking 1080p 2.39:1 video transfer. This Blu-ray may inspire people to travel to Turkey thanks to a very flattering video presentation of the streets of Istanbul. Colors are gorgeous, practically popping off the screen without looking over-saturated. The video comes off with flying colors especially due to all the negative stylish choices created by the director and editor – mega-quick cuts and camera jumping all over the place could have brought about blurring, streaking, ghosting, and who knows what else – but here the video handles the hyperactive motion perfectly. I really enjoyed this video transfer!

The DTS-HD 5.1 English audio track is reference-quality with its extremely active soundfield. The mix is pretty damn awesome – all the surrounds and speakers are used to great advantage during the intense car chase scene in the crowded streets of Istanbul, the roof-top running and grenade-thowing scenes, as well as powerful cracks and thumps during Liam Neeson’s barrage of fists onto the goon bodies. Bass, gunshots, and dialogue sound perfectly clear to all add up to a satisfying home-theater experience that could match the experience of listening to this film in a theater. This Blu-ray is top quality!

Spanish DD 5.1 (theatrical & extended versions), French DD 5.1 (theatrical and extended versions), English Descriptive DD 5.1 (theatrical version only), and Mandarin DD 5.1 (theatrical version only) audio tracks, as well as English SDH, Spanish, and Mandarin subtitles are also included.

Besides offering two cuts of the film (the extended cut isn’t a game-changing director’s cut that greatly improves upon the PG-13 version of the film), the extras offered here are pretty slim and forgettable. The Black Ops Field Manual is an extra that can be turned on to show little factoids that pop up during the film. Sam’s Tools of the Trade is a sort-of-James Bondy extra which gives details about Bryan Mills’ gadgets. Nothing special basically.

– Black Ops Field Manual
– Deleted Scenes (6.56)
– Alternate Ending (25:00)
– Sam’s Tools of the Trade (3:32)
– FX Movie Channel Presents “In Character with Liam Neeson” (5:01)
– Theatrical Trailer

Taken 2 is already an unrealistic stretch since no sequel was necessary, but since it exists, the possibility of a third movie to form a Taken trilogy wouldn’t be surprising, especially since this sequel made so much money even with all the negative reviews. Since the underdog star of Taken 2 is Maggie Grace, I would love to see the third movie focus on her. With a decent writer, a third Taken movie could be a combination of La Femme Nikita and Kill Bill – a daughter who has learned all the tricks from her bad-ass father and is now seeking revenge on some more family members involved in the sex-trafficking business. She would seek revenge for either her traumatizing experience she had in the first two movies or the screenwriters can kill off her parents in the third movie so that she has a new reason to seek revenge. The first movie’s theme was about revenge aka “if you mess with my family, I’m going to mess with yours.” The second movie’s theme was about “how revenge keeps on continuing and someone needs to step up and just stop the revenge-seeking.” And the third movie can be about “how the revenge bug comes back to haunt later generations even if there was peace between the two fighting groups.” Whatever the story is, audiences will shell out money to watch an ass-kicking hot female seek revenge on a slew of creepy sex-trafficking goons. If a whiny annoying kid can turn into the greatest villain of all time (Anakin Skywalker), then the same evolution can be applied to Maggie Grace’s character who also was an annoying kid when she first showed up in Taken Part One.

When watching Taken 2, don’t expect originality, watch the pretty scenery of the Istanbul streets, pay attention to Maggie Grace rather than focusing on a tired Liam Neeson, and finally, accept that the big exciting money shots come in the middle of the movie rather than at the climax. Follow these steps and you may enjoy the movie more!