AS far as the action is concerned, the difference between the Bourne movies and Taken is that Bourne is shown as a badass by how he gets through things beaten up and sometimes seriously injured, while in Taken, the main character just plows through everyone without breaking a sweat. This, not only takes away the thrill of the fights, but also makes an already too old character more unbelievable and hard to empathize with.
Furthermore, the poor script really doesn't compensate in the empathy department. He was a government sanctioned serial killer, who ignored his daughter all his life, but it's ok because it allowed him to magically save her life when she got kidnapped, just like his overbearing paranoia predicted. It's not bad parenting if everyone is evil and out to get your daughter.