Taken (2002)

good back-story, and good acting

Don't listen to the negative reviews

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

SCFI themed dramas is rarely a good idea,Taken proves the point. It's just not interesting..The bottom line is you follow a few family's trough generations.Which you can divide into two camps.One side, has one or two in each generation abducted,the other side is the government, investigation into UFO's and alien abductions etc. and doing everything in their power to keep it secret,so they can learn the secret behind their tech.The problem with the entire series is,nothing really happens. It's all very stereotypical.Alien abducted me ,they did weird experiments on me yada yada. No cliff hangers, no nothing.There's really nothing much to be excited about.All just a lot of talk and family dramas.The entire show is basically built on Steven Spielbergs hard-on for aliens.I bet,that if Spielberg wasn't behind this.It would never been green lighted

From none other than visionary Steven Spielberg comes TAKEN (2002), which I first saw during it's initial 2-week run on the Sci-Fi (now called Syfy) channel. I admire the scope, ambition, and emotion attached to this entertaining, if at times meandering, miniseries. Week 1 is definitely the stronger of the two, brilliantly setting up the premise and featuring some very strong acting and storytelling. The Week 1 actors and writing really SOLD me on this story and had Week 2 been as strong, I'd probably rate TAKEN as one of the best long-running miniseries of all time! Week 1 starts off in 1944, with Russell Keys (strong performance by "General Hospital's" Steve Burton), along with his bomber crew, being 'taken' by an alien spacecraft during their WWII mission. The crew is experimented on, but Keys is essentially the lone survivor. Keys returns home with PTSD, not due to war, but due to the alien experience. This compels him to leave his wife and child to solve the mystery. Eventually, the aliens take Russell's teen son Jesse Keys (very solid performance by James Kirk). The aliens obviously see an internal resolve in the Keys' men that distinguishes them from the rest of the human race.A second parallel story starts around 1947, and involves the lone survivor of a downed alien spacecraft that manages to take human form as "John" (Eric Close in a convincing performance), who seeks refuge on a Texas farm owned by Sally Clarke (the engaging Catherine Dent in a strong performance), a hard-working waitress and single mother of two. John and Sally bond and she is impregnated, leading to a human-alien hybrid Jacob Clarke (superbly played by then-newcomer Anton Yelchin, now known for being the new Chekhov in the re-booted Star Trek franchise).The final parallel story also starts in 1947 in the infamous Roswell, New Mexico, where the local Air Force has found John's downed ship and his 4 alien compadres who did not survive. Backed by the government, the military takes over the super-secret project, which starts off being briefly led by Colonel Campbell (fine performance by the veteran Michael Moriarty) and is soon taken over by his ambitious son-in-law Captain Owen Crawford (brilliantly played by Joel Gretsch), military intelligence officer. Gretsch perfectly essays the role of megalomaniacal Crawford, who runs the project with unapologetic brio. I really felt that Gretsch's character carried the first week (spanning 1947 to 1962) with strong support from the other actors.The first week's storytelling is strong, a perfect balance of science fiction, politics, speculation, and drama. One really buys into the premise that these goings-on could have actually happened. It's definitely not fiction that many an American have reported UFO sightings and alien experiences over the years, and this miniseries is one of the better attempts at relaying this message to the viewer.It's really Week 2 (spanning from 1970 to 2002) where TAKEN goes a bit South! Although the puzzle pieces finally start to come together to an interesting, if predictable, conclusion, it's the getting there that's tedious at times, with noticeably weaker acting and writing and repetitive storytelling that piggy backs off of Week 1. The biggest plot point misfire for me was the far-fetched premise that Crawford's "successors", his son Eric and granddaughter Mary would actually INHERIT his position and power over the project. It makes absolutely zero sense for Crawford's offspring to even be involved or to take over a top-secret MILITARY project, given they had neither military nor intelligence experience like their predecessors had. Plus, neither of them had Owen Crawford's finesse or presence. He had a charming sublime machismo that radiated off the screen, while Eric was rather lifeless and Mary was too over-the-top. And Mary (played by Heather Donahue) was essentially the main character in Week 2. I also immensely disliked the usually reliable Matt Frewer's odd performance as Eric and Mary's right-hand man Dr. Chet Wakeman. Frewer's antics threw me off much too often during the last week. I found his character to be the most out of place of the entire cast.While Emily Burgl (as Lisa Clarke) and Andy Kaufman (as Charlie Keys) were commendable as the adult versions of the last respective offspring of the Clarke-Keys clans, the main saving grace of Week 2 was the performance of newcomer Dakota Fanning (who plays Allie) whose wonderful narration is a key to the series overall success. This little girl basically stole the show from all of her adult counterparts in Week 2! Also, Week 2 definitely had a couple of entertaining episodes, but it just didn't have the overall tight feel of Week 1. But things definitely got more interesting in the last couple of episodes when all things come together!Another issue I had with the series is the aging of the characters. At times, characters' looks based on their supposed ages didn't add up. They either looked too young or too old. Sometimes, characters looked the same age even though the time period was a good 10 to 15 years apart, while other characters looked much older than they should at that period. Ignoring that, though, there is some good dialogue and intense scenes that make up for the rather poor makeup!So I would definitely recommend the miniseries based on ambition and overall scope and the tightly woven storytelling of Week 1. In a way, TAKEN is really among the last of a dying breed, the long-term ambitious epic network miniseries. I know Sci-Fi was never really a major network, but back then, it had vision. Now it's just the Syfy network with super low-budget sci-fi fluff! TAKEN, even though it's on Sci-Fi, reminds me more of those great, long-running miniseries that I used to watch in the 80s on the major networks. On that note alone, I say give it a try!

Despite itss slow parts, We all loved Close Encounters of The Third Kind...right? well imagine Taking Close Encounters and stretching it out into twelve episodes. Just imagine how slow it would be then. Well if done correctly, such an idea could work exceptionally well. hence, we have Taken, Spielberg's and Dreamworks' return to the sky and who or what is beyond. An outstanding mini-series, which when it wants to be can evoke every emotion. sometimes it's grim sometimes it's utterly heart-warming, though the series as a whole is dark, it has incredible mystique. My advice is that you dedicate one week of your life to watching taken, one episode a night, although it's good enough that you may go through it in only two or three nights.Starting with the Roswell incident of 1947, Taken chronicles three generations of Three different families leading up to the present day. they all have a part in this incredible story of a visit from other beings, who want something from us which they have waited a long time for.There are not many names in the cast, I'll say that. The only ones people may recognize are Datoka Fanning and Heather Donahue (Blair Witch). which I wouldn't say there are any award worthy performances, everybody is invested enough to be convincing, especially Fanning.I guarantee that unless you have a tree second attention span, You will come away from Taken with an amazing Television experience.

If you are going to watch this series let me suggest you watch the recap in the start of the first 4 episodes and nothing more. The episodes fill 4 times 1 and a half hour with a story that easily could have been told in a normal 45 minutes episode.What especially bothered me in these episodes was the narrator that sounds like Minnie Mouse and maybe makes sense later in the series but not here.The characters are also unbelievable thin and have no real soul in the first 4 episodes. The actors cannot be blamed for this as the script is near non existent. Throughout the series you will know what will happen 10 minutes before it happens. At least in the last 6 episodes Dr. Chet Wakeman enters as a brilliant character and well acted. The rest of the characters also becomes a bit more interesting and not as shallow as in the start. The last 6 episodes are alright entertainment but never reaches higher as it is still predictable all the time.What was my feeling was they had seen SG-1 about the Asgard's problems and then had decided to make a non action series about it.I was pretty disappointed about abductions in this series too.All in all first four episodes the crew should be forced to see for eternity and the 6 last was okay entertainment. Not more complex stories than in a general action movie (it has no action though). I would call it an alien soap.