Í fullri alvöru, hvernig í ósköpunum er ekki hægt að fíla Taken? Ég geri mér grein fyrir því að margir erlendir gagnrýnendur geta svarað mér þessari spurningu ýtarlega (þar sem þeir voru ekki allir eins jákvæðir og áhorfendur), en það er líka löngu vitað að gagnrýnendur eiga erfitt með að skemmta sér, enda er það ekki draumavinna þeirra allra að sitja í vinnunni og horfa á kvikmyndir allan daginn. Leitt fyrir þá!
Hvort sem aðdáendur fyrstu Taken-myndarinnar báðu um framhald eða ekki, þá var ómögulegt að koma í veg fyrir gerð hennar. Erfitt er að segja til um hvort Taken 2 verði góð mynd eða ekki (sérstaklega eftir að skipt var um leikstjóra), en ljóst er að hver einasti Bryan Mills-aðdáandi mun gefa henni séns. Og hvers vegna?
Því þetta er Liam Neeson. Jarðýtan með tilfinningarnar.
En hvað ef myndin verður síðan ekki þessi granítharði rússíbani af öskureiðum Neeson og í kjölfarið ekta grautur af rassaspörkum og byssuhríðum?
Netþáttur vefsíðunnar Latino-Review segir „engar áhyggjur! Þessi mynd verður alveg jafnsvöl og sú fyrri ef ekki svalari.“
Vefurinn komst greinilega einhvern veginn í handritið og í kjölfarið uppljóstraði glænýjum staðreyndum um Taken 2, og við erum ekki bara að tala um einhverja stutta mola, heldur er nánast öll atburðarásin útskýrð í hneykslandi smáatriðum (a.m.k. fyrri helmingurinn – þ.e. uppstillingin). Augljóslega mun þetta þýða að restin af greininni mun innihalda spoilera, þótt seinni helmingurinn sé ekkert útskýrður. Annars skulum við ekkert flækja þetta neitt, heldur skulum við henda okkur beint út í sögu myndarinnar og sjá hvernig hún er kortlögð:
Atburðarás myndarinnar mun eiga sér stað í Istanbúl, París og Los Angeles. Og allt það sem við höfðum heyrt áður um söguna (þ.e. að Mills og fyrrverandi eiginkonu sinni sé rænt, og er það núna í höndum dótturinnar að bjarga þeim) er dagsatt! En margir spyrja sig hvernig það gerist allt saman. Lof mér að útskýra, með því að sýna ykkur það sem Latino Review sagði. Textinn er allur á ensku. Vonandi fyrirgefið þið það.
– The film opens at a small airport in Albania as 8 coffins are unloaded from a plain, onto a baggage wagon. The coffins contain the bodies of the 8 bad guys Bryan Mills killed in the first movie. Because of beaurecracy, the Albanians had to wait a year for the french to release the bodies.
– The bodies are then transported to a graveyard in Traposia, where a funeral immediatly takes place for Bryan’s victims. At the graveyard, we meet Murad, who is the father of Marco (the bad guy that Mills electricuted in the chair in the first movie. Marco was electricuted so badly that his heart exploded). During the funeral, Murad lifts up a knife and swears vengeance and promises to bring the body of Bryan Mills back on Albanian soil.
– Back in L.A. we catch up with Bryan and Kim (his daughter), who has recently failed twice on her driving test. Bryan is on his way to pick up Kim for the third test, and much to his surprise, Kim isn’t home, but with her boyfriend at his place.
– We find out that Bryan’s ex-wife, Lenore, has seperated from her second husband, Stuart, and is about to get divorced. We go to Kim, who is at her boyfriends house, and we also learn that because of the events in the first film, Kim is not ready to get intimate just yet. Jamie, the boyfriend, recieves a knock on the door and is surprised that it is Bryan, who has installed a GPS-tracker in Kim’s phone, so he can know at all times where she is. Bryan gives a furious Kim her driving lesson (the driving test is a set-up for events later in the film)
– Meanwhile, back in Paris, we catch up with Jean-Claude (a beurecrat, and former field agent from the first film). We meet Zuko, Murad’s main henchman, who storms into Jean-Claudes apartment along with five other bad guys. Zuko overpowers Jean-Claude, ties him to a chair and demands to know where to find Bryan.
– Back in L.A. we find out that Lenore’s vacation travel plans with Kim had fizzled as Lenore was trying to work things out with Stuart. Bryan takes the opportunity to invite Lenore and Kim to meet him in Istanbul, where he takes a bodyguard job for three days. Lenore will ask Kim and think it over.
– The story then quickly moves to Istanbul where Bryan has just finished his three day job. He gets paid and then catches up with Lenore and Kim. Bryan takes Kim that night to the local disco and then takes her sightseeing in Istanbul. The following day, Kim decides to take a rest by the pool as Bryan and Lenore go to have lunch. Before you know it, after a quick car chase scene in the struggle, they are surrounded by Murad’s men.
– (In what is to be sure one of the film’s biggest trailer moment) Bryan calls Kim and imforms her that he and her mother are about to be… taken. Murad’s men then overpower Bryan and his wife, and kidnap them.
– Kim, back at the hotel, narrowly escapes being taken herself by the albanians bad guys and goes into hiding. Bryan and Lenore then get taken to an albanian safe house in Istanbul.
– Although we won’t spoil how Bryan manages to get in touch of Kim, it is a race against time as Kim has to find her kidnapped parents. Now there were concerns online that the Taken sequel would turn into yet-another Luc Besson female-assassin film, making Kim the central protagonist. This is NOT the case AT ALL.
In the sequel, Kim has to find her parents to get Bryan his weapons, so he can fight back his captors. The way the story excecutes this is very clever and very cool. Trust us when we tell you that the badass that was Bryan Mills in the first film, is here in the sequel as well.
Jæja, þar hafið þið það. Persónulega er ég farinn að anda miklu rólegra og tel að þessi mynd taki Expendables 2 alveg í görnina, margsinnis. Um þessar mundir er Neeson á fullu í tökum og má reikna með frumsýningu í kringum lok ársins/byrjun næsta árs.
Forsýning kannski?
Ö, já!