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Lautner's action debut not exactly for the dogs

Perhaps "Twilight" heartthrob Taylor Lautner should get a series of films with titles that make a pun on his famous abs. "Abilene Nights"? "Abashedly Yours"? "Abacus Calculation"?

For now, we have Lautner's first stab at being a leading man in "Abduction," a consistently far-fetched thriller in which he plays a high-school teenager who's suddenly caught up in a world of lethal spies and corrupt CIA men. Though not an abject failure, one hopes it's an aberration.

Rest assured, "Abduction" isn't four minutes old when we get our first look at a shirtless Lautner and his popular six-pack. Nathan (Lautner) is enjoying himself at a party, and when he trudges home the next morning, his father (Jason Isaacs) still makes him spar with him, to an oddly violent degree.

Nathan has long been in love with his across-the-street neighbor, Karen (Lily Collins), and a school project fortunately brings them together. While researching, they stumble across a photo of what looks to be of Nathan as a toddler on a missing children website.

When Nathan contacts the site, he sets off a chain reaction. Immediately, mean-looking men are marshaled from all corners of the globe, dispatched from a computer hacking bunker.

Throughout the film, incredulous digital things like this happen. "Abduction," directed by John Singleton, tries to portray a world of blanket surveillance, without any real depiction of it. Nathan later calls 911 from a pay phone and the CIA answers. If he were to make toast, you'd swear an agent would pop up instead of bread.

Nathan discovers that his parents aren't really his parents, just as the bad guys are descending on the house. Nathan and Karen set out on the road. The supporting cast is largely solid, with Alfred Molina as a CIA supervisor and Denzel Whitaker as Nathan's friend Gilly.

There's no way to judge "Abduction" other than as the first "Taylor Lautner project." That was how it was conceived and that's how it feels. It's a cynical movie, with little in mind other than a showcase for a very popular, young actor.

As an action star, Lautner handles himself reasonably well. He has a bit too much of a boy-band singer look to him, but he's likeable and the major deficiency of "Abduction" isn't his. It's the script.

<b>“Abduction”</b>

★ ½

Starring: Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Alfred Molina

Directed by: John Singleton

Other: A Lionsgate release. rated PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, brief language, some sexual content and teen partying. 106 minutes.