1. Unnecessary Plot
As I've touched upon already, the crux of my argument is that, at the end of the day, the plot of Taken 2 just didn't hold up. Where Taken was a sprint, Taken 2 was a jog. There was no real direction for the movie to go in and the Mills' 'story' didn't really have the opportunity to progress. The only new information we learned of the family is that Kim doesn't want to sit her driving licence and that she has a new boyfriend (who I have a sneaking suspicion is a plot device for a possible Taken 3). Other than that, Lenore is now divorced from Stuart and her and Bryan share a few longing stares. But, even here, his saving her doesn't warrant any big romantic pay-off at the end of the movie. It is left pretty open, which is another reason the movie is bad. Leaving movies open-ended with the possibility of ANOTHER sequel in mind is lazy writing, in my view. Part of me feels this picture was really a very tenuous bridge between the original masterpiece and a possible future hit. The whole movie just felt more like an excuse for Bryan Mills to show us just how much of a Wonder Father he really is, again.