Topic: Abduction

[Dragonfire]

Abduction

I haven't been that impressed with Taylor Lautner, though the only movies I'd seen him in were Twilight and New Moon.  I've sort of given him the benefit of the doubt since he's still young and he hasn't exactly how good material to work with.  I thought his new movie Abduction looked interesting when I saw the trailer.  I ended up having the chance to see it and I went.

I thought the plot had potential, but the movie never really meets that potential.  The pacing is uneven and too many parts drag on longer than needed.  The movie isn't that long, and it really takes a bit too long to set things up.  Once things do start happening, there are plot holes big enough to drive a truck through and Nathan - Lautner's character - keeps doing stupid stuff.  Nathan is still in high school, yet at one point, he is able to fight off a hired killer all by himself.  Yes Nathan is on the wrestling team and his dad taught him to fight, but it still is stretching things that he could do that, especially when the bad guy had a gun.  It just isn't believable that the bad guy wouldn't start shooting.  Nathan gets beat up kind of bad, but he never has any injuries.  Karen, the girl that Nathan has a crush on, ends up on the run with him.  She gets hit, but also no injuries.  After it is clear that his calls are being traced - and Nathan should have realized this when he kept ending up talking to the CIA - he was able to call a friend from school and meet him twice without anyone finding out.  Never mind how in the world a call made from a pay phone in a hospital ended up at the CIA instead of the 911 dispatcher.  It was ridiculous.  Nathan and Karen know they are in danger and bad people are after them, yet at one point, they are just walking down the side of a road in broad daylight with no attempt at disguises.  There are a few fight scenes, but they are rather cheesy.  There is very little mystery or suspense, though I think the movie was intended to be more suspenseful.  Nathan and Karen take time to make out at one point and then they just stop because they decide they need to get something to eat. 

None of the characters are that developed and most of the acting isn't that impressive.  There are a few good actors in the movie that do ok with their small parts.  The movie is riding on Lautner, and ...well...he doesn't have the acting ability to carry anything, let alone a whole movie.  He wasn't as broody and mopey as he was in the Twilight movies, but he had the same expression on his face most of the time.  Pretty much no matter what was happening, he had the same expression on his face..sort of a cross between being ticked off and constipated.  Lautner does seem to be trying to move beyond the Twilight movies, but he still has a way to go. 

The movie isn't completely horrible, but it has several issues and there isn't anything really good about it.  There is no need to rush out to see it.  Lautner's giggling teeny bopper girl fans may go see this just because he's in it, but most of them probably will end up disappointed.



I did get a review posted on Epinions if anyone wants to take a look.

Abduction

[Jimmy]

From what I've read this movie is mostly an excuse to make him took off his shirt again... and also make an action hero with this guy wich seem to be a big fail as a  rating from you is quite rare.

[Dragonfire]

I probably would have gone with 2.5 at Epinions if I had the option...I kept it at 2 because I didn't think it was good enough to round up to 3.

He does take his shirt off at least once.  The movie is definitely trying to make him an action star..it just doesn't work that well.  He's too young to be believable in a role like that..plus his acting ..well..isn't great.  Though that hasn't stopped Segal.     So who knows..maybe it will work for him.

[Jimmy]

Though that hasn't stopped Segal.  

But he is the only guy I know who play an ecologist fighting the polution caused by the oil drilling industry in the states of Alaska by blowing an oil refinery

completly illogic even for a Steven Seagal movie

[Dragonfire]

 
Somehow I forgot about that...  Very good point.  And we can't forget how he has magic bullets and guns so that he never has to reload.   

[Achim]

This is a first. You have rated a movie (and such standard action fare...) lower than Mark Kermode!

What Mark Kermode pointed out, that the film functions like an action film with Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger couldn't act either, so they surrounded him with people who could. Same here with Lautner. Kermode also found the middle a bit saggy (of the film,not Lautner's ) and the action scenes adequately executed.

[Najemikon]

ooh, that's controversial! Arnie can't act, but neither could the supporting cast in a lot of his films. They were built around him as a larger than life character in himself. This Taylor bloke doesn't have any of Arnie's charisma. For that matter, none of Seagal's either. He was always rubbish, but somehow his early stuff worked because of him, not despite him.

[Kathy]

I love Schwarzenegger and Seagal movies! 

I can't comment on Taylor though, I haven't seen anything of his.

[Dragonfire]

The action scenes were ok, but nothing great.  And like I said - or at least I think I said it here - for me, it was just too unbelievable that a teenager could go off with a girl and do all this stuff.  I didn't buy him being able to go all Jason Bourne on the one bad guy I guess.  And all the stupid stuff got to me...one minute the CIA and bad guys are listening in on calls Nathan makes, but then, when it is convenient, he can make a call that no one intercepts from a cell phone that is known to both groups tracking him.

I like some Sch..umm..Arnold - I'm sticking with his first name..I can spell that without giving myself a headache  - and Segal movies.  Neither of them is that great at acting, but it somehow manages to work with their movies.  And Jon is right..Taylor Lautner doesn't have the charisma.  Yes he looks good without his shirt, but that only goes so far.  I think part of it, at least for me, is that Arnold and Segal's characters were more believable for the situations they were in.  Futuristic robot sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor..that worked.  Former Navy seal turned cook who takes down numerous armed bad guys on a battleship. That worked too.  It makes sense that a futuristic robot would be a killing machine and be unstoppable.  It makes sense that a former Navy seal would remember the training and use it in the situation on the battleship. 

Like I said, this movie isn't horrible.  I really did almost go with 3 stars..but the more I thought about it, the more I felt like there were just too many issues for me to give it that rating.  The things I saw as issues did keep distracting me I guess you could say and they did limit how much I was able to enjoy the movie.  If there had just been one or two, then they wouldn't have bugged me as much.

[Achim]

ooh, that's controversial! Arnie can't act, but neither could the supporting cast in a lot of his films. They were built around him as a larger than life character in himself.

Well, it's Kermode's point, not mine, so I am not in the position to defend it. But I think he mainly meant the star making films in the beginning, like James Earl Jones in Conan.