The Film

Make no mistake; this is Liam Neeson's film. It's not writer/producer Luc Besson's. It's not director Pierre Morell's. Why? Because without Neeson, Taken would be a generic thriller at best. With Neeson, their exploitation film becomes the perfect equation for a thriller, and a box office phenomenon.

Okay, I guess I can't take all of the credit away from the folks behind the scenes. They wrote a damsel-in-distress story and added heart to it by making it daddy's-little-girl-in-distress (and making Daddy one mean cat). They included a current relevance by setting their story in the world of the sex trade and the modern slavery epidemic. And they designed a protagonist that simply will not stop until he rescues his daughter.

What Neeson adds to Taken really can't be under-emphasized. He adds gravitas to Bryan Mills, a retired spook who goes into action when his estranged daughter is kidnapped in Paris. Neeson is relentless, uncomfortably violent, and efficient in his goal. But for all those traits, he is equally awkward and inexperienced as a father. Mills has an element, and the world of violence is it.

Audiences turned out in droves to see Neeson exact vengeance on his daughter's captors. Taken seemed to have a special spark to it. What was that spark? Well, like I've already said, there were some nice elements to the story, and Neeson was the ace in the deck. But I think there is something else to the resurgence of the popularity of James Bond, the Bourne phenomenon, and now Taken.

We audiences love the illusion of control. Neeson's Mills, like Bourne and Bond, is thrown into a situation that seems to be the only thing he cannot control. But once in the situation, he takes control and we willingly follow him. Mills can be anyone, function anywhere, and use every resource within reach to help him save his daughter. It is almost supernatural how prescient he is, and how calm driving against traffic at high speeds!

In reality, we can't control our environments and the events in our lives. As much as we'd like to be cool under fire, we still can't control the bullets. But we love that our heroes can. When we see Mills (or Bourne, or Bond) dispatch villains with a flash of action, and anticipate their every move, we fantasize that we can do the same.

But about the only thing we can control in our lives are the choices we make. Sometimes those are bold, action-oriented choices. Sometimes we can only react. But in either scenario our choices build together to make us who we are. So while we can't necessarily control the action like Liam Neeson, we can adopt some of our heroes' best traits in making healthy choices no matter how much pressure we find ourselves under.

The Specs

The Blu-ray Disc of Taken capitalizes on some of what makes this format great. It also takes advantage of some current trends that I am not a huge fan of. On the plus-side, Taken's Blu-ray release spreads a LOT of content across one disc. Viewers get two full versions of the film, the theatrical release and an unrated release. There are also two commentaries included, and several bonus features. Blu-ray discs have an enormous amount of storage capacity and this release takes advantage of that. And the film does look great as well. Taken is a dark and gritty film, but the Blu-ray sharpness comes through in the dark blacks and dimly-lit scenes found here.

However, I personally noticed very little if any difference between the unrated version and the theatrical one. There certainly aren't any extra scenes or set pieces. At most, I could detect a few extra bullets flying or some lingering shots of bodily damage in Liam Neeson's wake. I wholeheartedly support the trend of having multiple versions of a film within one release. This is a favor to us fans, no question. I just wish the two versions were more noticeably different.

Another trend I can't say I enjoy is the selling of films as "2-disc editions" when the second disc is only a digital copy of the film. Maybe some people are taking full advantage of these digital copies. And maybe this is a way for studios to combat piracy as well. But I don't think these digital copies should be hyped as a second disc of content in "special edition" film releases.

Overall this is a good, not great, release of a film that has made itself an enormous amount of money and earned its place among our generation's other semi-superheroic thrillers.