Lautner is being projected as an action hero. He plays Nathan, a high school student who has unexpressed feelings for his pretty neighbor, Karen (Lily Collins). His peaceful life falls apart when he discovers that his parents, Jason Isaacs and Maria Bello, are not his real mom and dad. Suddenly, bad guys appear and kill his adoptive parents. Two factions are after him: the CIA led by Agent Burton (Alfred Molina of “Spiderman”) and a Russian gangster, Kozlow (Michael Nyquist of the Swedish film “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”). Suddenly, his therapist, Dr. Bennett (Sigourney Weaver), becomes his guardian and he has to run for his life with Karen in tow, even if she’s so useless.
The main problem with the movie, aside from Lautner who has a very limited emotional range, is the very bad script with plenty of loopholes in it. Even the title doesn’t make sense as no one really gets abducted. The ending, for one, is so anti-climactic, with Lautner receiving a call from his real dad, a spy (Derek Mulroney of “My Best Friend’s Wedding”), but their meeting to face-to-face is withheld like they’re hoping there would be a sequel for this awful movie which is directed by John Singleton who got much acclaim for his directorial debut in 1991, “Boyz in the Hood”. His career has gone downhill since then with such works as the remake of “Shaft”, “2 Fast 2 Furious” and “Four Brothers”. It’ll surely go down a notch lower with the unbelievably boring dud that is “Abduction”.
