Despite Taken’s (2009) action-packed, hyped up trailers featuring an angry, revengeful father who is on a fast-moving, butt-kicking warpath to find his daughter who is taken, hence the title, this action flick actually begins at an agonizing snail’s pace. Not surprisingly, the biggest suspense of the film was actually experienced in the beginning of the film as viewers wait impatiently for the action to commence.

For an action flick, Taken begins slowly by showing father and ex-CIA operative, Bryan Mills, (Liam Nelson) reminiscing about his daughter’s childhood. The audience is led through a series of uneventful scenes that depict a somewhat pathetic Mills trying to make-up for lost times and rebuild his relationship with his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace). He has even given up his career, which kept him away from his family, and moved to be closer to his precious Kimmie. Although it appears as though no love is lost between Mills and his daughter due to his absent years, he struggles with playing second fiddle to his ex-wife’s new husband and new money.

And just as the audience is about to give up on seeing any action in this movie (which now closely resembles a drama), the foreshadowing begins as Mills is characterized as an overprotective and paranoid father who is extremely concerned about his 17-year-old daughter traveling abroad without parental supervision. Kimmie tells her father, “Mom said your job made you paranoid.” To which Mills blandly responds, “I was a “preventor” of bad things from happening.”

From this point forward the pace begins to quicken as the viewer waits wearily for the daughter to be “taken.” Although the kidnapping was not a surprise, Mills’ timing and sideline involvement added an interesting flip on the standard abduction scene. It is only after poor Kimmie is captured that the viewer gets what they’ve been waiting for – the angry, taking-no-prisoners Mills who not only vows to get his daughter back but threatens her kidnappers. In the most famous line of the movie, Mills says, “I don’t know who you are but if you don’t let my daughter go, I will find you and I will kill you.”

The rest of the movie unfolds at a slightly quicker pace as Mills begins his strategic rampage to get his daughter back within a key 96-hour timeframe. In true ex-government operative style, Mills gets swiftly on the case and unravels several clues from the beginning of the kidnapping. He cleverly re-traces steps, obtains CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) level evidence and produces the best translation ever of barely audible words recorded digitally.

And although a bit unbelievable, Mills enlists minimal help to track down his daughter’s kidnappers. He calls a friend or two from his ex-CIA days to provide background information on the country of the abductors, which end up providing more harm than good.

Mills played by Liam Nelson is at his most believable as an adoring father. In several action scenes, he single-handedly takes out seven and eight men by himself, which seems a bit unlikely for a 50 to 60 year old man, ex-CIA agent or not. It’s like casting Jason Bourne of The Bourne Identity with a graying, middle-aged Matt Damon. It just doesn’t work.

Taken does provide some small plot twists and turns, but not enough for the viewer to forget what the next step in the story was going to be. Is the movie predictable?  Yes, but thankfully not embarrassingly so.

And Taken, like all good action and adventure flicks, has the foreseeable, fairy-tale ending in which the girl is rescued and brought to safety before any real harm is done. And any retribution or repayment of the harm and violence caused in the process is all but forgotten. Despite killing over 20 people, torturing others, stealing cars, destroying several homes and buildings, Mills manages to keep the audience rooting for him – after all he is the good guy.

In one of the major fight scenes between Mills and a leader of the kidnapping ring, the point of the movie is given. While pleading for his life, the bad guy says, “Please understand, it was all business. It wasn’t personal.”

Mills says blankly: “Well, it was all personal for me,” and then shoots and kills the guy.

Before his daughter’s abduction, killing and fighting bad guys was just his job. However, the kidnapping of his pride and joy made Mills life worth living as he risks it to save his daughter — because well after all, it is personal.

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