by Allison Caramico
In the fall action flick Abduction, audiences expected to see actor Taylor Lautner as Nathan, a teen fugitive on the run from dangerous enemies. Instead, they saw Twilight’s Jacob Black, a werewolf clearly out of his element. The producers of Abduction tried to reproduce Twilight’s success by casting Lautner in another heartthrob role. This failed attempt proves that even Lautner’s signature abs cannot compensate for bad writing.
Abduction’s director, John Singleton, has an Oscar nomination for best director in 1991 for Boyz n the Hood under his belt. However, his new endeavor does not reflect his vast directoral experience. The wannabe thriller tried to be intense and suspenseful, but was unsuccessful.
Like Twilight, the screenplay has a surplus of cheesy lines. The script was so awful, the audience actually laughed out loud during the climax. Even Lautner seemed bored with the plot, as if he knew how dry and predictable it was to anyone not obsessed with Jacob.
In Abduction, Lautner’s fictional family is pursued and attacked by Russian terrorists. Lautner, however, manages to escape with his love interest, who is played by Lily Collins.
Frequent shots of his renowned physique, which made Lautner a star in the Twilight films, felt out of place in Abduction. “I find it to be sad that producers have to resort to such an awful tactic to attract young female viewers. They need to worry about being more creative rather than worrying about how many times Taylor can show his six-pack,” said junior Chris Stone.
This may have possibly been the reason for the movie’s grossing a mere $19.5 million, only slightly more than half of the film’s budget, an estimated $35 million. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, meanwhile, made an astounding $710 million, more than 14 times its budget.
“[Twilight] had a particular fan base of preteen girls,” said sophomore Eve Zhurbinskiy. Producers of Abduction must have been counting on the allowances of preteens to make a profit. Twilight was only successful because of those millions of girls who fell in love with the characters and the plot. What stuck with them was the idea that somewhere, their Jacob could exist.
Nathan must have lacked Jacob’s wolfish charm, because the lure of Lautner’s ripped physique was not enough to leave tweens swooning.