Strangely enough I watched Taken last night, a film many, aside from myself, praise. I like Taken, but it really doesn’t do it for me. It’s a decent fast-paced action flick, but one that falls short in many areas. Considering that, I obviously didn’t feel the film warranted a sequel. After the jump you can check out the second trailer for Taken 2, a film I’m sure many of you fans are dying to see.

Check it.

This trailer feels tired to me — imagine what the whole of the film will bring. I can see why the ‘bad guys’ would want to get back at Neeson’s Bryan Mills, but the way this trailer plays out, it gives me the overwhelming impression they are simply rehashing the first film with a twist: the daughter has to do some of the ‘good guy’ work. This is even harder to swallow considering the daughter, Maggie Grace, comes off as useless.

When I say tired, I refer to the storyline as well as a piece of dialogue like, “Your mother and I are going to be TAKEN.” Could you force the title in there anymore? “You are going to be TAKEN, your mother and I are going to be… TAKEN TOO.” It just feels off to me. But remember, this is coming from the guy who didn’t love the first go-round.

On a tangent for a moment, in Taken, I just don’t care if Bryan finds his annoying-spoiled-brat-daughter. She is such a hard character to love, or even appreciate, and Maggie Grace kind of sucks too. Moments are thrown into the mix to make you think she has redeemable qualities, but most of those are her saying “Thank you Daddy, you’re the best!” after she gets what she wants. And this is just after she gets an effin’ horse for her birthday. I don’t want to see anyone subjected to sex trafficking, but I just hate the girl so much I don’t care about Mills’ plight as much as I should. The moments when Mills finds the drugged up girls acting as prosittues are more compelling moments for me, not his memories of his self-involved daughter.

Anywho… I do love watching Neeson cut through henchmen like soft butter, and Taken 2 promises more of the same.

Taken 2 hits theaters October 5th, 2012.

 

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @matthewdeery