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So I watched Taken recently. To sum up, Liam Neeson's hot virgin teenage daughter (Shannon from LOST) goes on a trip to Paris and immediately (seriously, within an hour of stepping off the plane) gets snatched by vile curs who auction her into the loving arms of some fat Arab dude intent on getting busy with her untouched nether regions.
Now, naturally, ol' pappy doesn't take kindly to such hijinks, and, seeing as how he's an ex-bad-ass Special Ops military dude (well the "ex" doesn't apply to the bad-ass part), promptly embarks on a righteous ass-kicking mission the likes of which you've never seen, not even on the show, 24, starring Jack Bauer.
I loved this movie.
The aforementioned ass-kickery is gloriously visceral. Necks, skulls, and joints snap, crack(le), and pop, in rapid succession, as Liam lays down some instensely satisfying fatherly justice. You're watching and you can feel it. You're like, "Mmm, yeah! Fuck that guy!!" *pumps fist* I mean, these are the absolute scum of the earth: men whose sole purpose is kidnapping and selling into sexual slavery innocent (and hot, let's not forget hot, nobody cares if the chicks are ugly) femininas. Watching Liam dispense violent comeuppance on these fools awakens within and then instantly satisfies a primal lust for revenge on the inarguably wicked.
So.
Why don't games harness this power? This isn't the first revenge flick; Hollywood has known for a while it can cash in by playing to our base desires. Games would be the perfect medium, interactive and all. I can't remember when I truly felt justified ripping the heads off my enemies in blah-blah-blah-action-game-X. I guess maybe something like God of War comes closest but it's still light-years away. Maybe Max Payne? Is it impractical to expect such emotion to be infused into a "mere" video game? Or, has it already, and I've just not been open to the experience?
