It’s hard not to imagine what might have been had “Taken” fully embraced its pulp fiction roots. Might shameless marketers, capitalizing on Liam Neeson’s role as a ruthless assassin turned vengeful father, have dubbed it “Schindler’s Revenge” in a fit of bad taste? Would the violence and spy games have been upped in order to appeal to fans of the Bourne and James Bond franchises and lovers of graphic violence? It’s hard to say, as “Taken” aims squarely for the middle, a slice of bitter pulp dressed up slightly to appeal to a wider audience. 

As it is, “Taken” is an enjoyable popcorn flick, mostly without pretense and only occasionally making stabs at being above average. It’s forgettable but fun, though most of that fun comes from watching Neeson shoot, stab and punch his way through various ethnic groups and social classes in Paris with amazing efficiency.

All the killing and maiming has a purpose, though, and that purpose is to rescue Neeson’s daughter (Maggie Grace), who was kidnapped by some shifty Albanian sex traffickers hours after beginning her summer vacation in Paris. Luckily for her, her father is some sort of former spy, and a hasty phone call to him in the minutes before she’s spirited away provide Neeson with enough info to hop on a plane, land in Paris and immediately start busting heads. According to a friend in the French government, Neeson only has 96 hours to find his daughter before she becomes a smack-addled whore, and those hours are not wasted. A construction site is destroyed, an entire Albanian gang is murdered and some dude is tortured. If anything, Neeson is a highly productive tourist.

There’s no question that “Taken” is a B-movie, and it has more in common with grindhouse revenge flicks than the big-budget espionage thrillers it tries to emulate. Luc Besson’s script doesn’t display the sort of cleverness or heart that he brought to “The Professional” or “The Fifth Element,” and “Taken” could use a dose of both of those qualities. Director Pierre Morel is going for Bourne-style action here, but his visual style is indistinct and lacks urgency. Morel’s direction gets the job done efficiently, but in a film where almost every gunshot and karate chop is a killing blow, a little directorial flair isn’t such a bad thing.

The same could be said for Neeson, who remains mostly detached and cold throughout the film. Sure, it is part of his character’s M.O., but that veneer never cracks. A protagonist with only two emotional states—concerned dad and cold-blooded killer—can only be so compelling, no matter how many skulls he cracks open. Even his anger is subdued to some vague grumblings and the occasional shout. Flipping the switch on the killer instinct is as easy for Neeson as turning on a light. The results are fun to watch, but it’s in no way as interesting or emotionally awkward as, say, Viggo Mortensen’s similar role in “A History of Violence.” For Neeson’s character, rescuing his daughter from Albanian sex traffickers is only slightly more difficult and out of the ordinary than picking her up from soccer practice.

Understatement and efficiency are rarely the hallmarks of films about vengeful patriarchs stabbing their way through legions of sex slavers, and “Taken” could have been a little more shameless, a little more go-for-broke. The middle’s a fine place to aim for, but in a movie where going to extremes is a necessity, a few wild shots do nothing but help, even if they miss the mark entirely.