We watched "Taken" with Liam Neeson the other night.
It was pretty bad. I say this as someone who loves action/adventure movies. But it was so much a dad's revenge fantasy that I couldn't get into it.
We start with an off-the-shelf sad-sack prelude: Neeson's character living in his grim little apartment and saving up for a karaoke machine, which he takes to his daughter's birthday party. She lives with his ex-wife and her new husband, who happens to be fabulously wealthy. The daughter loves the karaoke machine and him, but (of course) she is more excited by the incredibly expensive gift that stepdad gives her. Our protagonist goes back home and is depressed.
Cue part two of the prelude, where we meet some of his ex-coworkers and find out the sad-sack is actually a retired badass, who (of course) gave it all up so he could live near his daughter. Aww. This was one of the few parts I liked, because his old ass-kicking buddies all have such great chemistry. I was hoping that when the shit hits the fan later on, that they'd get involved and we'd get to see them all working together.
Sadly, no. Because this is not that kind of movie. To fast-forward a little bit, this is the revenge fantasy where One Man Must Go It Alone. And so he does, when against dad's better judgement (of course) the daughter goes off to Europe with her friend and they are promptly kidnapped. At last, our hero has something he can offer his family that even super-rich stepdad can't: his skills in tracking down and killing people. And so he goes off to do that, on a private plane that stepdad provides.
I was afraid it would turn out that in some way, super-rich stepdad would be the cause of this kidnapping, either for ransom or to get back at him for some evil thing he'd done. I was relieved when this turned out not to be the case, but a little confused. It turns out the kidnappers are human traffickers who keep and sell girls as sex slaves. And apparently nobody thought to ransom these obviously rich girls, and neither of the girls thought to say, "Don't hurt me, call my dad, he'll pay at least a few million for me." Nobody involved is that bright.
Anyway, Neeson cuts a swathe of destruction through Paris and eventually finds a nasty little bordello, where he finds that the daughter's promiscuous friend has died of an OD (punishment for girls who have sex!). And he finds out that the daughter was taken somewhere else to be sold, because of her supposedly prized status as a virgin. I've never heard of this but okay, I guess it does happen.
A whole bunch of ass-kicking later, Neeson's character rescues his daughter, just in time before she loses her virginity to a morbidly obese rich Middle Eastern guy. (Such a fascinating combo of things that our culture hates.) Because of course he's going to rescue before anything sexual happens to her! This is a father's fantasy. This isn't the far more interesting version where he rescues her after and then they both have to deal with what's happened to her. In fact, there are no consequences to her: she's of course relieved and grateful and surprised that daddy rescued her, there's the tearful "I love you, Daddy!" and then she's going home to the mansion. No mention of nightmares, of how she can't bear to have the lights off or to sleep alone, or how she flinches when any man raises an arm to reach for something near her. Neeson has rescued the princess, and now everything is okay. His ex-wife even forgives him for everything she was angry about. But he's not part of their family even now; rather than ride in the car with them, he's going to ride off into the sunset (or get his own taxi, as it were). Because this is not a movie about relationships, really -- it's just about Neeson's character. A one-man show.
By the way, if anyone wants to read something real about human trafficking, this is short: 5 Things I Learned as a Sex Slave in Modern America (Cracked.com). Note this part:
But, incredibly, human trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar industry in the United States today. Statistically, Liam Neeson is more likely to sell his own daughter into slavery than have her stolen by some mysteriously brown Parisians.
We start with an off-the-shelf sad-sack prelude: Neeson's character living in his grim little apartment and saving up for a karaoke machine, which he takes to his daughter's birthday party. She lives with his ex-wife and her new husband, who happens to be fabulously wealthy. The daughter loves the karaoke machine and him, but (of course) she is more excited by the incredibly expensive gift that stepdad gives her. Our protagonist goes back home and is depressed.
Cue part two of the prelude, where we meet some of his ex-coworkers and find out the sad-sack is actually a retired badass, who (of course) gave it all up so he could live near his daughter. Aww. This was one of the few parts I liked, because his old ass-kicking buddies all have such great chemistry. I was hoping that when the shit hits the fan later on, that they'd get involved and we'd get to see them all working together.
Sadly, no. Because this is not that kind of movie. To fast-forward a little bit, this is the revenge fantasy where One Man Must Go It Alone. And so he does, when against dad's better judgement (of course) the daughter goes off to Europe with her friend and they are promptly kidnapped. At last, our hero has something he can offer his family that even super-rich stepdad can't: his skills in tracking down and killing people. And so he goes off to do that, on a private plane that stepdad provides.
I was afraid it would turn out that in some way, super-rich stepdad would be the cause of this kidnapping, either for ransom or to get back at him for some evil thing he'd done. I was relieved when this turned out not to be the case, but a little confused. It turns out the kidnappers are human traffickers who keep and sell girls as sex slaves. And apparently nobody thought to ransom these obviously rich girls, and neither of the girls thought to say, "Don't hurt me, call my dad, he'll pay at least a few million for me." Nobody involved is that bright.
Anyway, Neeson cuts a swathe of destruction through Paris and eventually finds a nasty little bordello, where he finds that the daughter's promiscuous friend has died of an OD (punishment for girls who have sex!). And he finds out that the daughter was taken somewhere else to be sold, because of her supposedly prized status as a virgin. I've never heard of this but okay, I guess it does happen.
A whole bunch of ass-kicking later, Neeson's character rescues his daughter, just in time before she loses her virginity to a morbidly obese rich Middle Eastern guy. (Such a fascinating combo of things that our culture hates.) Because of course he's going to rescue before anything sexual happens to her! This is a father's fantasy. This isn't the far more interesting version where he rescues her after and then they both have to deal with what's happened to her. In fact, there are no consequences to her: she's of course relieved and grateful and surprised that daddy rescued her, there's the tearful "I love you, Daddy!" and then she's going home to the mansion. No mention of nightmares, of how she can't bear to have the lights off or to sleep alone, or how she flinches when any man raises an arm to reach for something near her. Neeson has rescued the princess, and now everything is okay. His ex-wife even forgives him for everything she was angry about. But he's not part of their family even now; rather than ride in the car with them, he's going to ride off into the sunset (or get his own taxi, as it were). Because this is not a movie about relationships, really -- it's just about Neeson's character. A one-man show.
By the way, if anyone wants to read something real about human trafficking, this is short: 5 Things I Learned as a Sex Slave in Modern America (Cracked.com). Note this part:
But, incredibly, human trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar industry in the United States today. Statistically, Liam Neeson is more likely to sell his own daughter into slavery than have her stolen by some mysteriously brown Parisians.