Hoping to mend his fractured family, Bryan invites his ex-wife and daughter Kim to join him for a vacation at the Legacy Ottoman Hotel . Lenore, struggling with her recent divorce, and Kim, dealing with the trauma of her past abduction, accept the invitation. The Shadow of Revenge
The problem? The father of one of the Albanian kidnappers Bryan killed in the first film wants revenge. He captures Bryan and Lenore. Now, it’s up to Kim to help rescue her parents using the “skills” she picked up from her overprotective dad.
Director Olivier Megaton (yes, that’s his real name) loves quick cuts and a shaky camera. In the first Taken , the action was clear and brutal. Here, several fights are hard to follow. If you get motion sickness, sit a little further from the screen. film taken 2
The film relocates the action from the gray streets of Paris to the vibrant, sprawling city of Istanbul. Bryan is finishing up a security detail protecting a wealthy sheikh. In a bid to reconnect with his family, he invites his ex-wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen), and Kim to join him in Turkey for a few days of vacation.
The answer the film gives is nihilistic: No one wins. By the end, Bryan has killed dozens more men, Lenore is traumatized, Kim has been forced to kill a man (shooting a villain in the shoulder), and the Mills family is more broken than ever. Hoping to mend his fractured family, Bryan invites
The film opens in Albania, at the funeral of the men Bryan Mills killed while rescuing his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace). Marko from Tropoja—the human trafficker who kidnapped Kim—is being mourned by his father, Murad Krasniqi (played with icy menace by Rade Šerbedžija). Murad is not just a grieving father; he is a mob boss driven by a code of honor and revenge. He succinctly summarizes the premise of the film: "He slaughtered our men. My son was not the first, but he will be the last."
When a movie succeeds on that level, a sequel is inevitable. However, capturing lightning in a bottle twice is a difficult feat. Released in 2012, Taken 2 had the unenviable task of upping the ante while maintaining the stripped-down brutality that made its predecessor a classic. Directed by Olivier Megaton ( The Transporter 3 , Colombiana ), the sequel expanded the scope of the conflict, turning the tables on the hero and exploring the consequences of his lethal actions. The father of one of the Albanian kidnappers
The genius of the original Taken was its simplicity: daughter is kidnapped, father kills everyone. But asks a logical, brutal question: What happens to the families of the men Bryan Mills killed?
does not reach the heights of its predecessor, but it is a necessary chapter in the Bryan Mills saga. It takes the character out of his comfort zone, forces his family to step up, and delivers enough visceral thrills to justify its runtime.