Not really Taken
I saw Taken 2 last night and whilst I enjoyed it, I felt it was quite badly flawed in ways that made it not work as well as the previous movie. The previous one had it's own flaws, but they were plot holes that didn't detract from the fast paced action that is ultimately the point of the films. And it's this point where this film falls over as in the midst of the action, it all stops and Brian the protagonist has a bit of a rest before going off and finishing the job.
Having given it some thought, I have to wonder if there was some kind of rewrite of the script after they made the trailer that explains this. Because there was a scene in it where Brian is on the phone to the head bad guy discussing the location of the ex-wife. That never features in the film. And I can't really see where it would fit either. The impression I got was that Brian had a limited timeframe to rescue her, yet he ambles casually along the route he memorised when he was taken (which is a massive annoying plot hole I'll cover later) as if he has all the time in the world. Which he clearly wouldn't have given they'd already tried killing her once.
The thing is, is that if they'd stuck with the way the trailer went, they could have kept the pace up right through the movie. He escapes and then goes off on a rampage to find the ex-wife rather than escaping to take the daughter to safety and have a bit of a rest before getting stuck in with the main plot point of the film. And you would have thought the embassy staff would have been unwilling to let him back out onto the streets as well especially as he'd just killed a cop.
And that annoying plot hole I mention is to how he finds the ex-wife. Firstly the kidnappers take them both to bad guy HQ before taking them to where they're going to be held, giving Brian the chance to work out where it is. And secondly the route they take isn't big enough to fit a van in places - it seemed to be an exercise in squeezing as many unusual soundbites in as possible. Thirdly, whilst I appreciate him vocalising what he was hearing/sensing about the route was probably a way of helping the viewer learn the route too, I'd have thought the guy in the back of the van with him would have shut him up.
Meh. Hopefully the next one will be a little better thought out. Assuming there is going to be one. I think there might be but either it's set in the US or he goes off on a rampage in Albania to deal with the problem at it's source.