Abduction

The cast of the 'Twilight' series are trying to branch out of the series and prove that they are more than just a pretty face and can act beyond playing a vampire, a werewolf or the girl in love with them.

Due to his muscular physique Taylor has chosen to expand his skills with an action film. In some ways it is a good move as it does not require much serious acting.

I'm not entirely sure why this film is called 'Abduction'. This might be a spoiler but Nathan (Taylor) has not been abducted. I admit that he 'thinks' he has been abducted but ultimately we find out that he has not. So to me the title is a bit misleading.

The plot as it is, is very ordinary. Young man trying to uncover the truth about his life when he finds out his parents are not his real parents. He gets pursued by mysterious figures until he finds the truth. You know where the plot is heading and so there are not real surprises. Normally this is not a problem but I found the plot bland and while some action scenes were decent there were no great thrills. I sometimes feel in situations like this that the character should have been different. Nathan has been groomed by his fake parents to fight. But in some ways I think it would have been more thrilling if he did not know how to fight and had to use his brains and wits to get out of all the difficult situations he gets into. But I also know that is not what this film is about. It is disappointing too for director John Singleton considering his pedigree. His films of late have been fairly ordinary.

As mentioned above this is not the type of film to expand Taylor's acting range. While there is an emotional element to it, it does not require him to do much. He mostly is running and fighting. So he is adequate at the role in this sense but if he wants to be taken seriously he needs to expand his horizons more. His support cast is very good though. Jason Isaacs and Maria Bello are very good as the fake parents. Alfred Molina and Sigourney Weaver make nice agents who want to help our hero. They don't do all that much and I feel are only there to add a bit of dignity to proceedings. It was nice to see Michael Nyqvist from the Norwegian version of 'The Millennium Trilogy'. I hope he does not get stuck doing bad guys though.

Not the type of film to make audiences outside fans of the 'Twilight' series sit up and take notice of Taylor Lautner. It is a safe film for him and matches his acting in ordinariness.