Why did they take a 30 year old woman to play a 17 year old?

Well, remember, nobody thought that the first Taken movie would be such a huge hit. Liam Neeson was NOT an action star when that came out (that's what launched him as a late-in-life action star). Liam Neeson even thought it would be a direct-to-DVD movie. He did it for some fun/he wanted to spend some time in Paris so he figured he might as well get paid for it. So no, the casting probably wasn't as on point as it could have been, although honestly, I thought Maggie passed for 17 in the first movie. She was only 24 at the time of filming it and they kept her very fresh faced, although she way overacted with the bouncing around, etc.

But yes, in the second movie I think she was 27 or 28 while filming it, they glammed her up more, and she definitely doesn't pass as a teen. But I don't think anyone ever expected there to be a second movie. What I wonder about is why they didn't just set the second movie a little further in the future - 4 or 5 years, when Kim is 22 or 23.

Maggie's gorgeous - soft features, big deep eyes that one could lose oneself in for ages, absolutely amazing figure and long, slender, shapely legs. But yes, she was terrible in this role, well, not the entire role but with the silly, teenage girl bouncing around with excitement stuff, it simply did not fit her at all. And (and this is not Maggie's fault but that of Luc Besson and his writing cohorts), the daughter's falling back into her old ways after being rescued in the first movie, and her being so against her dad's protectiveness at the start of the sequel, is so unbelievable as to be just plain impossible to accept. After her ordeal in the first movie, she'd be traumatized for ages, if not the rest of her life. She probably would not want to step outside the house for years, and. if she did, a teenage girl who had been through what she went through would probably most certainly not want to go anywhere without her dad by her side. I always shut off the movie right after Brian shoots the guy on the yacht in the final scene, as in my opinion that's where it ends.

Because it's a sequel and it would be weird to get a new actress in to play Kim

the more I looked at her the cuter I decided she was

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006718/
in http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3408708/

One of the first things I noticed when she popped up on screen......... first movie she looks young enough to pass for her teens, yet in 4 years she looked to be closer to her real age in this movie.

Also found the time lines between the first and second movie to be far to confusing..... intro implies it is only months afterwards, yet movie tries to imply that much longer has passed.

It would have been way better if she had taken all the scenes in her bikini, no matter how old she is.

Maggie Grace is so awesome, she can play a milk carton if she wanted to and I'll still watch the film :p

Doesn't look much older than 20 to me. I've seen worse.