Liam Neeson officially became an onscreen action movie badass with the slow-burn success of the 2008/2009 film, Taken. Starring as Bryan Mills, an ex-CIA operative who comes crashing into the European sex-trafficking underworld to save his abducted daughter, the actor (who was in his late '50s at the time) opened up a whole new lane for his acclaimed career.

With Taken 2, Neeson will be pushing age sixty, but that fact is seemingly irrelevant, as the official Taken 2 trailer proves that Mr. Neeson is as badass as ever.

Unlike the Taken 2 international trailers which provided a first taste of the sequel's flavor, this domestic trailer starts things off on a happy note (rather than an ominous one). We see Mills and his (estranged?) family - ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) - meeting up in Istanbul for an impromptu vacation, never realizing that the proverbial Sword of Damocles is dangling overhead. Every action provokes an equal and opposite reaction, and the ass-kicking that Mills did in the first film has left relatives of the dispatched Albanian sex-traffickers very sore, indeed. When the crooks come looking for payback, they try to use Bryan's family as bait - a plan that is only partially successful.

The beauty of Taken 2 is that - unlike, say, Die Hard 2 - there is no major contrivance at work to put the main character in circumstances similar to what he experienced in the first film. Instead, screenwriter/producer Luc Besson and his frequent collaborator Robert Mark Kamen (The Fifth Element, The Transporter) have created a logical and organic way to continue the story. There's even a great moment in the trailer where we can see the possiblity of Taken 3, as Mills - on the phone with his enemy - makes the observation that even he kills this new wave of baddies, their kin will inevitably rise up for vengeance...and will be promptly killed as well.

Taken 2 starring Liam Neeson (Trailer)

On the whole, things look promising for Taken 2, which will see a new director in the form of Olivier Megaton (Colombiana, Transporter 3). If there is one criticism to make in regards to this initial footage: the idea of Kim suddenly developing super-soldier skills like her hard-as-nails daddy does seem a little far-fetched. Then again, female warrior types are a popular trend at the moment, and Megaton has featured such characters in both of his aforementioned projects. While there's a strong possibility that this sequel could turn out to be much more over-the-top than its predecessor, that should, yet and still, ensure a reasonably good time for audiences.

Taken 2 will be in theaters on October 5, 2012.

Source: Yahoo Movies