It was revealed this week that there will be a sequel to the popular action movie Taken starring Liam Neeson. Of course Neeson will be back to find them and kill them…again. There’s currently a movie out in the cinemas that resembles Taken; it also stars Liam Neeson performing in a kick-ass role. It’s called Unknown.
Unlike Taken though, Unknown has a bit more of a well thought out plot. Sure Taken is good, but in the end of the day, there’s no twist or anything you just watch Liam Neeson’s daughter get kidnapped and then witness him hunt down the abductors and kill them. Simple as that. With Unknown there’s a lot more thought put into it.
I’ve been going to the cinema a few times recently, and every time I’ve been Unknown was advertised during the trailers. It was a good trailer to be honest and even that had you wondering what was actually going on. From what the trailer showed, there’s a man called Dr. Martin Harris (Neeson) who on a trip to Berlin with his wife. He ends up taking an ill-fated journey in a taxi. When crossing a bridge the taxi driver loses control and ends up ploughing into the river below. He gets resuscitated but when he goes back to his wife she doesn’t recognise him and there’s another guy claiming to be Martin Harris!
This prompted a guessing game between myself and my brother on what the actual plot twist was going to be. A couple of favourites I came up with are: his wife isn’t his wife, the taxi driver is; and he orders the taxi driver into the river to save Clarence and then wishes he’d never been born.
Of course neither of those are the real twist. It’d be good if one of them was. Throughout the movie you try and figure why someone has stolen his identity. I mean, he's just a biochemist, not in a position of power or anything. It's good because we know he's not gone mad, as we saw him with his wife at the start. The real twist is quite good I thought, and no, I’m not going to ruin it for you. Go and check it out for yourself!
The action sequences are pretty good in this movie; from the car chases to the fist fighting. Neeson’s no stranger to them and he makes acting in them look easy. You have to wait a little bit for them to appear while the movie sets itself up but that’s no real issue as it’s all part of the story, which itself is also good; based on French author Didier Van Cauwelaert’s novel Out of My Head.
I actually prefer Unknown to Taken. It’s not as clear cut that Liam Neeson is a hard man. After all Marin Harris is just a biochemist whereas in Taken, Neeson plays a former CIA operative. As I said earlier the plot to Unknown is better than Taken’s too, there are plot twists aplenty, each of which will confuse you but slowly unravel a completely logical twist. It keeps you guessing right until the very end.
I enjoyed Unknown quite a bit. It’s not just a mindless action movie, instead it uses its action sequences to compliment the plot as it moves along. It builds up well to the eventual plot twist and leaves you feeling very satisfied.
Final verdict: 4 Stars. Interesting and exciting stuff, with a good twist.
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