I have to admit that I was quite interested in this film purely because of such names as Jason Isaacs and Signourney Weaver being attached to it. I should have known better when I also saw a trailer heavily featuring Taylor Lautner and Lily Collins that this was to be a teeny-fest.
'Abduction' centres around eighteen-year-old Nathan who leads a happy life with his parents in a nice big house filled with Apple products. Happy until his class is assigned a project about missing children and Nathan then happens upon a website featuring a photo of a missing child who bears a striking resemblance to himself. After his 'parents' are murdered by assassins, Nathan finds himself embroiled in a CIA conspiracy and on the run along with his crush Karen.
The main problem with this film is that it relies too heavily on the young cast of Taylor Lautner and Lily Collins and neither of them are solely able to carry a film. What doesn't help the younger pair's rather bland acting skills is the fact that both of the characters they play are not only dull but are as thick as two planks ('yes, we know the CIA/bad guys can trace phones but let's still use the phone to call folk!' or 'let's split up despite the fact we're being hunted'). Karen is also an utterly redundant character and there is absolutely no point to her other than to provide some teen romance.
The one positive is that Lautner can handle himself in the action scenes, which again why he might have pulled this film off if he'd had a stronger actor to work alongside and guide him. In fact, they might have produced a fairly decent popcorn flick if they had kept the much more talented adult cast involved heavily alongside Lautner, for example, if they'd had Weaver or Isaac's character on the run with Nathan rather than the pointless Karen. But clearly the producers were not that bothered with making a decent film.
Now I do enjoy a good action film but first we have about forty-five minutes of Nathan's boring high school life then we go from fight to chase all because the two characters are too stupid to properly protect themselves and make one stupid decision after another. In between, we are bombarded with messages about how cool Apple and BMW are (why does Nathan need a Macbook, an iMac and an iPad?).
People are comparing this to 'Spy Kids' but at least the two wee moppets in that film were smart and interesting. I'd say 'Abduction' is more 'The Bourne Identity' for kids and young teens. They should have just rated this a PG and advertised this for kids because I can't imagine anyone past high school age being interested in this (other than girls only interested in seeing Lautner).
'Abduction' centres around eighteen-year-old Nathan who leads a happy life with his parents in a nice big house filled with Apple products. Happy until his class is assigned a project about missing children and Nathan then happens upon a website featuring a photo of a missing child who bears a striking resemblance to himself. After his 'parents' are murdered by assassins, Nathan finds himself embroiled in a CIA conspiracy and on the run along with his crush Karen.
The main problem with this film is that it relies too heavily on the young cast of Taylor Lautner and Lily Collins and neither of them are solely able to carry a film. What doesn't help the younger pair's rather bland acting skills is the fact that both of the characters they play are not only dull but are as thick as two planks ('yes, we know the CIA/bad guys can trace phones but let's still use the phone to call folk!' or 'let's split up despite the fact we're being hunted'). Karen is also an utterly redundant character and there is absolutely no point to her other than to provide some teen romance.
The one positive is that Lautner can handle himself in the action scenes, which again why he might have pulled this film off if he'd had a stronger actor to work alongside and guide him. In fact, they might have produced a fairly decent popcorn flick if they had kept the much more talented adult cast involved heavily alongside Lautner, for example, if they'd had Weaver or Isaac's character on the run with Nathan rather than the pointless Karen. But clearly the producers were not that bothered with making a decent film.
Now I do enjoy a good action film but first we have about forty-five minutes of Nathan's boring high school life then we go from fight to chase all because the two characters are too stupid to properly protect themselves and make one stupid decision after another. In between, we are bombarded with messages about how cool Apple and BMW are (why does Nathan need a Macbook, an iMac and an iPad?).
People are comparing this to 'Spy Kids' but at least the two wee moppets in that film were smart and interesting. I'd say 'Abduction' is more 'The Bourne Identity' for kids and young teens. They should have just rated this a PG and advertised this for kids because I can't imagine anyone past high school age being interested in this (other than girls only interested in seeing Lautner).