Abduction (2011)/Movie Review

 Release Date: 23 September 2011 (India) Runtime: 106 min

Genres: Action | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Taglines: The fight for the truth will be the fight of his life.

A thriller centered on a young man who sets out to uncover the truth about his life after finding his baby photo on a missing persons website.

Director: John Singleton
Writer: Shawn Christensen
Cast: Lily Collins, Jake Andolin, Oriah Acima Andrews,     Ken Arnold, Maria Bello    , Steve Blass, Derek Burnell, Benjamin J. Cain Jr., Holly Scott Cavanuagh, Radick Cembrzynski, Richard Cetrone, Mike Clark  

Original Music by Ed Shearmur
Cinematography by Peter Menzies Jr.
Film Editing by Bruce Cannon       
Casting by Alan Lee Joseph Middleton       
Production Design by Keith Brian Burns       
Production Companies: Gotham Group  Lionsgate  Quick Six Entertainment  Tailor Made Vertigo Entertainment
Filming locations:  Brownsville, Pennsylvania, USA Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA Sutersville, Pennsylvania, USA
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
REVIEW

The premise for this story is that Nathan (Lautner) is living a wonderful life with his two parents. However, one fateful day a group of men kill his parents and destroy his home sending he and his girlfriend Karen (Lily Collins) on an adventure, as they try to avoid the CIA and the Russian Intelligence. This is really all I can say without ruining any major aspects in this tried and true plot.
I'll start this review by saying that trailer was more action packed then the actual movie. Rather than seeing Lautner wield a gun and do some awesome martial arts, a majority of the action involves the teenage couple mainly eluding the henchmen. Various chase scenes, both car and on foot, are shown throughout the movie, and are interspersed with repetitive dialog and occasional, albeit brief combat scenes. As a result, action lovers or even semi action lovers will be disappointed with what this movie has to offer.
So you may be asking, "Robbie if the story was bad and the action was not very good, what was good about it?" Well the two biggest strengths of this movie were the soundtrack and the suggestion of a plot twist. The soundtrack for the most part provided more of an adrenaline rush than anything interlacing fast paced techno tones with hard core guitar. The combination of the two styles gave half of the chase scenes their character. Perhaps the biggest reason I stayed though was that the film kept suggesting there was going to be some plot twist, or underlying motif to the reason Nathan was being chased. Although they told you the reason he was being hunted, the acting and plethora of shady moves kept hinting there was something more. I'm here to tell you that there is a very minor twist that really wasn't worth the long wait.
The only other things I can say about this movie are the following. First Taylor Lautner fans are going to go gaga over watching their favorite werewolf smolder and pout throughout the whole movie. He still delivers the same monotone dialog that he made famous in his teenybopper career, but this time keeps his shirt on to actually act. Regardless teenage girls and other big fans will not mind as they scream in delight, while those who don't will enjoy watching him get owned in a few scenes. Guys will be happy to see the cute Lilly Collins throughout the movie, and may even enjoy her acting as much as I did. I have to applaud the camera work as well as they do a nice job of capturing what little detail was in this movie. Finally fans may have seen Sigourney Weaver in the trailer, but like so many cameos these days, her star appearance is few and far in between.
Lautner may have finally escaped his werewolf days of Twilight, but he hasn't really traveled that far outside of the role. The promise Abduction had shown in the trailers was grossly overrated. A shallow plot, overabundance of chase scenes, and lack of twist really disappointed me.