Taken was far too long, It story could have been told in 2-3 2 hour episodes.
It had a very good story premise, in fact the most important one that could be told. About humanity and it's importance no matter how developed a species becomes.
It didn't take 2 weeks of 2 hour installments to tell this story tho'.
The very length took away from the core of the story and diluted it's dramatic tone.
Speilberg has always had a penchance for runaway storytelling.
I wouldn't call Stan Lee a true science fiction writer tho'.
(Yes I know he's written some stories late in life. And yes I grew up a big fan of Marvel in the early days so don't go bashing me over my opinion. I just think Lee is not in the same catagory as Asimov, Gibson, Clarke etc...)
And John Carpenter is not a true science fiction writer!
He's a music composer for cinema turned director who to his credit has produced some of the most seminal horror films of the last century. I'm rather out of step at my age with the latest in publishing but I can't recall any science fiction writings turned out by carpenter that was of any credit to the genre.
As for the boycotts you might be suprised.
After all it was the "fanboy" types that got star trek back from the dead and turned network programming on it's ear giving us the wide variety of programming we enjoy today.(Can you imagine tv left to the old school program directors who gave us such shows as "I dream of Jeannie" or "My mother the car" not to mention such drivel as Ozzie and Harriet. We'd still be watching crap like Father knows best if not for "Fanboys".)