Taken Blu-ray

Taken

 (2008)

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller



A former government operative comes out of retirement and uses his extensive training to rescue his daughter from a slave trade operation.

For more details about Taken on Blu-ray, see the Taken Blu-ray Review

Taken Blu-ray, Video Quality

 


Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC, and granted a 1080p transfer Pierre Morel’s Taken arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox-UK.

It looks like Fox’s UK transfer for Taken is identical to the French transfer EuropaCorp used for their Blu-ray release. Contrast on the UK disc, however, appears to have been slightly boosted and as a result some of the daylight scenes (the airport action scenes) look a little rough. Furthermore, during these specific scenes edge-enhancement becomes a bit problematic. On a positive side, clarity remains consistently pleasing.

The film’s color-scheme will likely raise a few eyebrows. The manner in which Taken is shot certainly allows for a lot of inconsistencies in terms of color saturation, and I wasn’t too impressed with some of the more obvious manipulations that I saw. For example, there are plenty of scenes in Taken where the flesh tones look surprisingly unnatural. They aren’t overly disturbing once you get used to the film’s tiptoeing between raw and polished imagery, but I have to assume that some of you will notice what I described above. This being said, the actual print for Taken is in top-notch condition – I did not detect any debris, scratches, or dirt whatsoever. (Note: This disc is encoded for Regions B and C. Therefore, if you do not have a Region-Free or Region B/C PS3 or SA, you will not be able to access its content).

Taken Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 


Taken arrives with the following audio options: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Descriptive Audio 5.1, Castellan DTS 5.1, German DTS 5.1, Italian DTS 5.1, and Russian DTS 5.1.

As expected, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track delivers a near reference quality audio treatment. Throughout Taken, the rear channels are extremely active, the bass notably potent, and the dialog very easy to follow. Furthermore, the dynamic amplitude is nothing short of spectacular. A lot of the chase scenes for example would certainly test the muscles of your audio system (tire screeching, head-on collisions, etc). The action scenes are also quite impressive, though I tend to believe that balance is at times a bit problematic. There are some very heavy audio enhancements that could annoy some of you. Still, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track certainly captures the spirit of the film quite well. For the record, I did not detect any disturbing pops, cracks, or hissings.

This Blu-ray disc also offers a very unusual English Descriptive 5.1 audio track. I personally have never encountered one of these before, so I am unsure if this is a new feature which the studios will be promoting, or simply an exotic addition to Taken. There are probably people that would appreciate a narrator explaining to them what is happening on the screen (we are not talking about a dub here), but I simply do not know why one would not want to listen to the original audio track.

This being said, there is a very small portion of Taken where Liam Neeson confronts a gang of Albanian human traffickers where French and Albanian are spoken but English subtitles aren’t offered. From what I understand, some viewers are convinced that English subtitles should have been included. Well, this could very well be the case, but I would not be surprised if this is how Taken was meant to be seen by English-speaking audiences - unsubbed. On the other hand, I am fairly certain that this UK Blu-ray release is an exact replica of the French Blu-ray release, so 20th Century Fox might have just dropped the ball on the English subtitles. For the record, the Blu-ray disc also offers optional English HOH, Castellan, German, Italian and Russian subtitles.