Movie Review: Taken

I was still groggy from the bus ride. I looked outside, we were in Dau. I was 2 hours away from Manila. A new movie had started playing. I knew I was going to sleep through this one. There's Liam Neeson. I'm definitely sleeping through this one. 

Or so I thought. A couple more of minutes later and I was hooked. Like what's shown in the poster above, this is definitely Liam Neeson's movie. He is almost in every frame. and he's brilliant. He plays a retired detective and a dad to a 17 year old girl out to tour Europe, following U2's trail. 

His daughter is kidnapped and suddenly he's no longer retired. 

Watching Taken is like playing a video game. You start at Stage 1 where enemies are easily beaten, problems are solved quickly until we move on to the next stage. And just when we think we've found his daugter, as in the princess in those Mario games, we find that we must first defeat another more difficult enemy. 

I remember this play writing class I took in college. According to our professor, for our characters to be fully alive, they must have wants, desires, dreams. And our characters must go after those dreams and wants, no matter what it takes. Their every action must be dictated by those goals.

And man, does this guy run after what he wants. He jumps through buildings, shoots an innocent woman who serves him dinner, kills people, tortures and electrifies suspects, destroys buildings, and practically run over the whole of Paris - all to find his daughter. 

It was all so exciting, I wanted to hold on to the arm of the person beside me. Except that he was a complete stranger who might just punch me in the face.I swore to myself that if the movie did not reach its end by the time I got to Cubao, I'd stay on until Pasay. Thank goodness we found his daughter right before Nepa Qmart. 

Needless to say, I give Taken an A. Watch it.