Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Abduction Blu-ray Movie Review

You may want to stage your own abduction to stay away from this mess.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 17, 2012

Most kids fantasize now and then about having different parents than they actually have. Orphans and adopted kids of course are in a completely different category, since they know they have mysterious parents out there somewhere, about whom they may know absolutely nothing. That probably doesn’t help stop the fantasizing and may in fact only exacerbate it. Abduction has the barest kernel of a really intriguing idea going for it—namely that a kid with a supposedly idyllic suburban life, with those ultra cool idyllic suburban parents that seem to exist only in movies, suddenly discovers that he’s not who he thinks he is, after he finds a photo of himself as a tyke on a missing kids website. Unfortunately this John Singleton helmed film wants to be something like a testosterone fueled teenage boy version of last year’s spectacular success Hanna, except that Abduction has little of that film’s energy, intelligence or storytelling savoir faire. Instead this is a largely brain dead outing that tries to make Taylor Lautner into a young action adventure star, all within a spy conspiracy plotline that doesn’t just strain credulity, it virtually shatters it into a million little pieces. Logic flies out the window almost immediately in this film, and despite the participation of several A- listers, including Sigourney Weaver and Alfred Molina, this is haphazard filmmaking at best, a tired attempt to cash in on Lautner’s teenybopper superstardom at worst.

Lautner portrays Pennsylvania high schooler Nathan Harper, who we know is a supercool kid because we find him clinging to the hood of a car in the opening scene as his buddies careen madly through a backwoods highway going 75 miles per hour. Later Nathan repeatedly rides his motorcycle without a helmet, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is about as dangerous as Lautner gets in this film. Nathan has eyes for his comely neighbor, Karen (Lily Collins), and fate soon works in Nate’s favor when a sociology teacher pairs the two for an assignment. That assignment, which is never completely spelled out in the film, has something to do with researching missing children, which Nathan and Karen do on the internet, where (of course) they stumble across a picture of a small boy who, when age progressed, bears a frightening resemblance to teenage Nathan. When Nathan later finds a shirt that the kid was wearing in the photo, he becomes convinced he’s the missing child.

Okay, so far, so good, actually. As farfetched as it is to have a student assigned to research missing kids, and then to have that student find himself on a missing children website, it’s at the very least a promising premise for a film. But it’s here that Abduction just gets flat out silly. Nathan contacts the website, which turns out to be a ruse run by some nefarious foreign agent for the sole purpose—as in sole purpose—of finding Nathan. Now just let that sink in for a moment: this film has set up everything to hinge on a frankly incredible set of coincidences, first, that Nathan should be assigned to research missing kids, second that he should find this particular website, and third (and most incredibly) that the website’s very existence is simply to ferret out Nathan. Even the teenyboppers couldn’t be completely persuaded by that chain of events. Could they?

That sets the film out on its even sillier second and third acts, where Nathan and Karen must evade a gaggle of bad guys, and uncertainties abound about whether Alfred Molina, who plays a CIA agent, or Sigourney Weaver, who plays Nathan’s therapist (did I mention Nathan is haunted by repressed memories of some sort of attack?), are really who they say they are. This is Screenwriting 101 at its laziest, with ciphers instead of characters, and action sequences arriving just where Syd Field dictates they should. Lautner simply doesn’t have the acting chops, or frankly the charisma, to pull off a film like this, and he seemingly reinvents the term “wooden” for a new generation. Molina and Weaver are obviously picking up paychecks, nothing more. The fact that this enterprise was directed by John Singleton is a truly mind boggling turn of events, perhaps somewhat analogous to Spike Lee helming Inside Man a few years ago. This film does feature a couple of decent enough set pieces, but it’s like window dressing around a rotted corpse: it may distract your attention for a moment, but sooner or later the overwhelming stench of it all brings you back to what a disaster is underneath.

Abduction Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As turgid as Abduction undeniably is, few will probably have any major complaints about this Blu-ray's AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. The Blu-ray offers a sharp, well detailed image that is very impressive in the film's many location shots, many of which aren't traditionally lit. Colors are often bold and extremely well saturated, and close-ups reveal a wealth of fine detail, including (teenybopper heartthrob alaert) Lautner's beard stubble and bulging biceps. The film has quite a few night shots, and contrast, shadow detail and black levels are all excellent and consistent. The image quality is especially impressive in its excellent use of Pittsburgh locations, which show off the city in nicely gleaming video perfection. Sun glints invitingly on skyscrapers, the three rivers sparkle, and some of the sylvan environments (a couple of longer sequences take place in the woods) offer absolutely no artifacting like shimmer which regularly plagues similarly set Blu-ray presentations. Aside from one sequence which Singleton has somewhat oddly shot in soft focus (see screencaps 15 and 16), Abduction has an overall extremely clear image which may help to recommend it to those who aren't especially concerned about actual content.

Abduction Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Abduction may have missed the summer blockbuster sweepstakes in its original theatrical exhibition, but this Blu-ray offers a state of the art lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 audio mix that has Summer Blockbuster written all over it (sonically speaking). This track is both incredibly boisterous and bombastic as well as exhibiting a really surprising amount of finesse. Immersion is virtually nonstop throughout the film, from the first moments of the truck careening down the highway to, later, Nathan on his motorcycle, with some excellent panning effects. When a huge explosion rips through a house early in the film, even those without their volume turned up very loud are going to be in for a floorboard rattling experience. But perhaps even more impressively, especially given this film's otherwise hyperbolic approach to everything, is the really nuanced sound design in relatively quieter moments, which the DTS track renders beautifully. Listen to great ambient environmental effects in the two lengthy outdoor sequences featuring Nathan and Karen in the woods. Wind rustles lazily through the trees and a brook can be heard gently rushing over rocks in the background. It's just one example of the truly amazing dynamic range this track offers. Too bad all of this excellence isn't in support of a better film.

Abduction Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Abduction Application: Customizable In Film Experience is sort of like Lionsgate's version of Universal's U-Control, with three options: The Abduction Chronicle, The Initiation of an Action and The Fight for the Truth. The interface allows for any combination of the three to be selected, and then various PiP snippets play. The three options can also be selected to play separately outside of the film:
• Abduction Chronicle (HD; 18:17) is Lautner's first person account of shooting the film.
• Initiation of an Action Hero (HD; 11:57) highlights Lautner's supposed emergence as an acton adventure star.
• The Fight for the Truth (HD; 12:01) looks at the film's fight sequences.
• Pulled Punches (HD; 3:37) is a gag reel.

Abduction Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Abduction starts out promisingly enough, and its central premise—up to a point—is a solid, intriguing one. Unfortunately, the film crosses over that point almost immediately into one ludicrous coincidence after another. The film then just settles down into a trite cat and mouse game with absolutely no surprises whatsoever. Lautner is going to need something more weighty to ever escape his Twilight typecasting, and this attempt to remold him as an action adventure star is laughable more often than not, despite Lautner's undeniable athleticism and some of Singleton's well staged set pieces. Even Lautner's rabid fan base couldn't keep this film from failing to perform in its theatrical exhibition (it didn't exactly tank, but it sure never did the business it was forecasted to do). There will probably be a groundswell of fan support for this Blu-ray release, and for those fans, the good news is this release looks and sounds fantastic, although it's pretty light in the supplements department. For everyone else, forewarned is forearmed.