It’s often hard for an actor to break out of a character mould once they’ve portrayed them for so long. For example: try to imagine Daniel Radcliffe, best known for his role as Harry Potter in the series of the same name, appearing in a romantic comedy. It’s not easy to picture.
Taylor Lautner is best known for his portrayal of Jacob Black in the Twilight series and Abduction is Lautner’s chance to break out of the Twilight threshold.
When Nathan Harper (Taylor Lautner) stumbles across an image of himself as a young boy on a missing persons’ website, he realises his parents are not his birth ones and decides to discover the identity of his real parents.
Upon further investigation, Nathan learns that he is no ordinary child and, along with his neighbour, Karen (Lily Collins), finds himself on the run from a team of trained killers and the CIA.
Abduction contains all the key elements for an action adventure film. From exhilarating fist fights, adrenaline-fuelled car chases and nerve-wracking gun battles, to massive explosions, it’s all in there. However, it’s these features that prevent the film from being a total bore.
The poorly written script simply has Nathan and Karen moving from city to city, picking up clues that make very little sense as well as containing a lot of loose ends. Additionally, the dialogue throughout the film feels very forced by the characters and isn’t particularly convincing.
The film feels like a showcase for Lautner to show off his muscle and athletic ability. He can often be seen with his shirt off and pulling off his own stunts. Not only that, but Karen feels like a tacked on sidekick, who doesn’t particularly do anything and her main relevance is the predictable romance aspect.
Abduction simply feels like a Bourne franchise wanna-be, though it fails to reach the same spectacle. While there are some impressive action scenes, the remainder of the film is very much a disappointment. This is purely a film for Taylor Lautner fans and, even then, they should think twice about seeing it.