Abduction Review

Director: John Singleton

Cast: Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Alfred Molina, Sigourney Weaver, Jason Isaac, Maria Bello, Michael Nyqvist

Running Time: 106mins

Certificate: 15

Synopsis: When Nathan (Lautner) discovers that his parents are not who they say they are and his face is on a list of missing persons, he wants answers. But before his they can explain the truth, the assassinate his mystery guardians, leaving Nathan on the run from black ops with girlfriend Karen (Collins)…

Sitting in the theatre I wasn’t expecting a lot from this film as it seemed to be purely a vehicle for Taylor Lautner. But I was wrong, myself and most of the audience, laughed all the way through the 106mins. Of course we weren’t laughing with Taylor and the gang we were whole heartedly laughing and groaning at them.

The film looks to be a teen version of the BOURNE franchise, with the protagonist searching for the truth behind his life and discover who he really is, with an extra mcguffin in the form of the encrypted list thrown in. Add together some terrible acting, directing, editing, VFX, story structure and dialogue, all equals a terrible film.

Lautner begins the film as a average, jock-type teen who supposedly feels there is something missing in his life, which only manifests itself when he’s taking to his psychiatrist. The rest of the time he changes from party animal to the social leper, a completely unbelievable idea if you look at him. Once the story gets under way with the discovery that the people he thought were his parents actually are not, Taylor shows limited emotional reach whether its sniffling like he’s suffering from hay fever when confronting Maria Bello, through the speed  of overcoming his adoptive parents murders, to the ability to even remember to limp when he has a possible broken leg. He does a good job at a number of the fight scenes but there are very middle-of-the-road, showing no imagination from either the choreography, directing, or editing.  I still don’t get the the attraction or craziness that surrounds Lautner as all I can see is his incredibly comical nose, but hey, that’s just me.

Lily Collins (THE BLIND SIDE) does a passable job as the love interest but isn’t given much of a character to play around with. Generally, she just trails behind Lautner or contributes to a near R-rated ‘love’ scene. The source of danger comes from a great actor with a terrible character in Michael Nyqvist (THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO) who could of been a good DIE HARD or BOND villain but spends most the film grunting on the phone. The other possible element of danger is from Alfred Molina’s CIA agent who Lautner suspects is a turncoat and wants the list for himself. This would of been a nice idea but Molina’s character shows to aggression towards the runaway teens so seems pointless in the end.

The only good thing in the film comes from Jason Isaac (PETER PAN) and Maria Bello (THE COOLER) who are two incredibly fine actors and are totally wasted in this feature. Jason Isaac especially, as he shows some great moves in the fight with Lautner and could compete with Daniel Craig easily.

The substandard level of film-making is breathtaking which is a surprise with John Singleton at the helm. The director started off with the classic BOYZ N THE HOOD and graduated onto more social and racially-themed films, so hopefully this is just a bump in the road for him rather than the start of something (even though he has hinted at a sequel). The editing is baffling at times with it seeming as if whole chunks of the film are missing with some terrible VFX added on top, but maybe it’s all the editor had to work with.

Overall, this film that makes JAMES BOND JR seem like high art. The dialogue is far below average with lines like ‘I’m not going to die today. There’s a bomb in the oven.’ And then he dies. The end, where Nathan’s real father appears but he is always obscured (which would only make sense if the actor was famous but he isn’t really). I know some of the above might seem like I’m nitpicking as the film is made for girls just to stare at Lautner and wish they were Lily Collins but good money shouldn’t be thrown away on features like these. At least do something different and exciting.

ABDUCTION is out 28th September 2011