The answer is yes, but only for the most part. “Taken” is the king of action movies that can really only be enjoyed for the spectacle of it. It is also a rather short film that moves so quickly that by the time the credits have started rolling it might feel like only moments since the movie first began. That said, what “Taken” lacks in stamina, it makes up for in presentation, giving a tightly woven story that doesn’t hold back any punches.
“Taken” is the first American film from French director Pierre Porel, but the more notable credits come from the writers, Luc Besson (wrote and directed the “Professional”) and Robert Mark Kamen (wrote the original “Karate Kid”). Outside of Liam Neeson , Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen, the cast is mostly unrecognizable, although that might be a good thing. Not every movie has to be filled with stars, and the actors are convincing enough.
There are three points where the movie stumbles that are worth mentioning, however. The first is the overall plot of the movie, that being the father traveling to Europe to save his lost daughter. This might make for a simple emotion to tap in to, but the daughter spends most of her un-kidnapped moments being pretentious and annoying, and the film kind of wants you to care about her survival. There are quite a few other people, presented in the exact same predicament as the daughter, who gets brushed aside and forgotten.
The second stumble goes over the beginning of the movie. It takes a little while for the film to get going, to introduce the characters and for Maggie Grace to finally become kidnapped. I already mentioned that the movie was short, clocking in just over ninety minutes, so by the time the actual plot starts it only has about an hour left to wrap itself up. This lack of time to present story or plot information in any manner but fast leads to my third problem with the movie.
Liam goes about his attempts to rescue his daughter either by his own wits or through others, and his routes tend to follow two lines. Either he makes an assumption about what he has to do next, or some nice and surprisingly available piece of technology points him in the right direction. For example, he manages to track down the address of one of the bad guys via a description of the color of the house.
“Taken” is a fun movie. It’s well made, tightly shot and Liam Neeson is better than ever. My suggestion is to watch “Taken,” but wait for it to come out on DVD.