Abduction [M]

For as long as he can remember, Nathan Harper has felt like he has been living a life that’s not his own. And when he stumbles upon a picture of himself as a child on a missing persons website, his dark doubts are confirmed: his parents are not really his parents and his life has been a lie. But it goes further than Nathan could ever have imagined as, whilst piecing together his identity, he becomes the target of trained killers. Unable to trust anyone but his neighbour Karen, Nathan is forced to go on the run, without a clue as to what he’s run from or for. 

This is a classic example of the pull of names. The reason I hired this movie was because it had both Alfred Molina and Jason Isaacs in it (and a little because I wanted to see Taylor Lautner play a role that wasn’t a werewolf). For the entire duration, I was just staring numbly at the screen. I got everything that was going on; the ins and outs of the plot and so on, but the film just had this feeling of “it’s all been done before”. Everyone was just going through the motions and it made this movie just another action film. 

For as long as he can remember, Nick Harper has felt like he has been living someone else’s life. And when he stumbles upon a picture of himself as a child on a missing persons website, his darkest doubts are confirmed: his parents are not really his parents and his life has been a lie. But it goes further than Nathan could ever have imagined as, whilst trying to piece together his identity, he becomes targeted by a team of trained killers. Unable to trust anyone but his neighbour Karen, Nathan is forced to go on the run, with no clue as to what he’s running from or for. 

To give it its dues, this movie did have a few things going for it. It wasn’t like it was all bad. The story was potentially engaging and original, an interesting story of teenage self-uncertainty set against the background of government and global conspiracy. A little bit like Hanna, just nowhere near as good. 

Taylor Lautner stars as Nathan and he did very well. He actually was the only person to real put an effort into his performance. He broke out aggression, confusion, emotional frustration, smooth romance, and plenty of hard-talking action; he laughed, cried, screamed, fought, and kicked arse. Good on you Taylor. 

What brought the film down I think was the general feeling that it gave up not a quarter into the thing. There is no action that we haven’t seen before, all the characters are recognisable, and all the actors really just went through the motions, making it feel like they really weren’t trying. You have all these great actors, and Taylor was the only one who genuinely put in an effort. My respect for him rises. 

Not to mention that the ending was just downright stupid, but we won’t dwell on that. 

Starring Taylor Lautner, Lilly Collins, Maria Bello, Jason Isaacs, Alfred Molina, Michael Nyqvist, and Sigourney Weaver, Abduction was just another action movie. Filled with chases, shootings, conspiracy, romance, and plenty of under-the-radar sneaking, I thought it was a film that had potential, but for some reason just gave up halfway through.