But Lautner's leading-man debut was last year's "Abduction," a title that naturally inspired plenty of puns about his famously toned frame. The thriller from director John Singleton found Lautner playing a high-school student who gets caught up in a web of intrigue. AP reviewer Jake Coyle wrote that Lautner "handles himself reasonably well" but the script was the film's "major deficiency."
Constantinescu says he doesn't expect Lautner will stray far from crowd-pleasing fare.
"He's very good at playing the young, muscular jock or hero," he said. "Similar to Kristen, I'd love to see roles that offer Taylor different objectives than to be the hero, take his shirt off and save the day. However, I'm not sure that the public would believe him as anything more than the borderline superhero he has become famous for."
Jones agreed: "He's not going to be in the next mumblecore indie movie," she said of Lautner. "I'm not sure where he goes with this after age 30. His current trajectory is kind of clear, but I don't know what happens when he grows out of his dimples."
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AP Movie Critic Christy Lemire can be reached through Twitter: https://twitter.com/christylemire
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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