Off Topic: Taken (Film)

by Collin ~ February 17, 2009

Over the weekend I saw the film Taken starring Liam Neeson.  I really enjoyed it.  It delivers on the promise of being an action film.

Not to far after the set up Neeson’s character is a man on a mission, and he has to go through a lot of bad guys in order to get his daughter back.  The moral of the story is either don’t partake in human trafficking because you never know who you’re going to eventually piss off, or don’t mess with Liam Neeson. One of the two.

Just previous to Taken I had seen Max Payne out on DVD.  That was a movie that had style but left me wanting for more action.  More shooting.  Taken didn’t leave me wanting for more action. Was Taken formulaic? Probably. Unrealistic? Yup. However, altering either of those things wouldn’t have made it a better action movie.

If you’re a Game Master running a RPG adventure, Taken serves as a pretty good example of how to lay out a plot.  Going here will lead this other place, which will gain some new information, and so on.  Back in the day I was a player in a series of game sessions that had our characters traveling across Future Europe trying to break up a ring of human traffickers.  The adventures provided good opposition and objectives.

Here’s a trailer for Taken:

(IGN via YouTube)