THE MOVIE

Steven Spielberg’s Taken is the story of 3 Families from different parts of America, and what they experience through 4 generations and 50 years of Alien encounters. It begins in the skies of 1940s Germany in WW2 and goes through to the present day.

From the opening scenes you know that this mini-series is going to be special.

This Box set contains all 10 episodes of this Emmy Award wining Series.

Disc One
Roswell 1940s – 50s
Episode One: Beyond The Sky
Episode Two: Jacob and Jesse

Disc Two
The JFK years 1960s
Episode Three: High Hopes
Episode Four: Acid Test

Disc Three
1970s – 90s
Episode Five: Maintenance
Episode Six: Charlie and Lisa

Disc Four
The Present Part One
Episode Seven: God’s Equation
Episode Eight: Dropping the Dishes

Disc Five
The Present Part Two
Episode Nine: John
Episode Ten: Taken

Each Episode is narrated by Dakota Fanning (I am Sam) who is also great as Allie who is wanted by the army for their own dangerous plans.

Other noted Actors in Taken are Steve Burton (The Last Castle) as Pilot Russell Keys, Eric Close (TV’s Without a trace) as the mysterious John, Julie Benz (Tv’s Angel) as Russell Keys’s wife, Joel Gretsch (Minority Report) as Col. Owen Crawford who is obsessed with finding out more about Aliens, Matt Frewer (Max Headroom) as Dr. Chet Wakeman who must find away to track the Abuctee’s every movement and Heather Donahue (The Blair Witch Project) as Owen Crawford’s granddaughter Mary who is after Allie for her powers.

Each episode is directed by a different person, the likes of Tobe Hooper and Bryan Spicer which brings a different aspect to each one.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

The Video in Presented in it original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 16:9 Enhanced.

The video transfer is very good and the picture is fantastic, the colours are vibrant and clear. The special effects are done by some of the best guys in the business, which is shown in the CG work, which is amazing.

There is hardly any film grain and artifacts, which is expected from a show of this age.

Each episode is on a separate layer so there is no trouble with the layer change.

Audio:

Audio is presented in either Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 kbps and a Dolby Digital 2.0 at 192 kbps. I listened to the 5.1 all the way through and sampled the 2.0, and whilst both are good the use of the surrounds in the 5.1 is fantastic, for example, the sounds of the opening dogfight making you feel that you are actually inside the planes.

The LFE is use to good effect throughout the series.

THE EXTRAS

The only extra is on disc six and is the feature Inside Taken, which is a SciFi Channel documentary with interviews with Steven Spielberg, writer Leslie Bohem and principal cast members.

This is very interesting as it shows an insight to Steven Spielbergs' fascination on the subject of if we have been visited or not.

It is a shame this is the only feature on this release, as the R1 version has another 5 features on it .

SUMMARY

Steven Spielberg’s Taken is one of his masterpieces that will both thrill you with its special effects and warm the heart with a great human story about determination to understand the unknown and what it can do to 3 different Families.