You have all these elements that would lead us to believe that this film would pick up right where the original left us: happy family reunited. And it does, to an extent. However, Neesons character continues to work in the private security business, knowing full well this ultimately could put his family in jeopardy. His profession alone puts himself and the family in harms way, yet he still does this type of work on the side. So his work takes him to Istanbul: so if you are the villain, why not go for revenge here? The family of those slain in the first film dont have to come to America to get their retribution, and for some reason we find it OK to bring our family halfway around the world for a visit in a foreign country, just the 3 of us. You couple this with the outlandish mapping sequence involved in locating Neesons kidnapped character, and the fact that the daughter cant get her drivers license in the United States but she can execute a full car chase scene in a foreign country, and I really dont know where to go from here. It was at this point that I actually thought about leaving the theater.