Tracers (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Taylor Lautner will be remembered by many as the teen werewolf Jacob from the ‘Twilight Saga’. This role made him conquer the many hearts of young girls around the globe and even though he had been in a decent amount of movies, Twilight really put Taylor on the map. Nonetheless, not all of his work gets the same reception as those aforementioned movies. This time we see his name prominently on the Blu-ray cover of Tracers, a seemingly cliché story with a few impressive parkour scenes mixed in from time to time.
Cam (Taylor Lautner), one of the many bike messengers in New York city, is struggling to get by as he has no more family left. He rents a garage from a single mother but even that seems to become something hard to maintain. Cam has borrowed a handsome amount of money from the local Chinese bookmaker, and he is missing payments, thus his life may be pretty much over if he misses another payment. Sadly for him, things turn even worse when his bike gets run over, after a mysterious girl causes an accident and two enforcers come claim the little money he has and present him with a final deadline.
Nonetheless, Cam picks up the pieces after his boss calls him to tell him that his (apparently imaginary) girlfriend delivered a new bike at his work. Cam immediately realizes it’s the same girl who caused the accident and thus he is determined to find her, thank her and possibly get to know more about her. When he finally finds Nikki (Marie Avgeropoulos), he is also interested in her parkour skills. Whilst his first attempt of following her does not go all that well, Cam decides to put his spirit to the test and trains all he can to try and impress her. Thanks to this, he gets spotted by the group Nikki finds herself in and is invited to join in on one of their training sessions. Whilst it all seems like fun and games at first, after talking to Miller (Adam Rayner), who leads this pack of bouncy wolves, it’s clear that this group is more than a local sports team. After serious consideration of the trouble he is currently in, Cam decides to join in on the not-so-legal-actions of the group, hoping to score some extra cash.
Overall, the movie flows at a rather predictable pace, with some minor original twists and turns from time to time. That being said, from the start of the movie you can immediately predict certain events, as well as the inevitable love-story-portion of the movie. Thanks to the parkour theme, some scenes spice up the rather bland story, but in the end there is not that much ‘special’ to expect. That being said, the plot might be rather typical, but it does not mean it’s not enjoyable, to a certain extent.
It feels like the writers wanted to add something original to the equation by following the parkour bandwagon and this also works to a certain degree. It’s fun to see all of the running around and the scaling of buildings and such, as it’s a different approach to many typical hit and run scenes.
Acting performances are decent but due to his most famous role in Twilight, Taylor Lautner might not come across as the right actor for the job for many viewers. Nonetheless, he does a proper job in portraying the drowned-in-debt Cam, who has a hard time keeping his life in check. His co-star Marie Avgeropoulos plays the badass but sensitive girl who has seen her share of trouble as well. Her role may resemble her part in ‘The 100’ a bit when it comes to personality, but it tends to work for the love relationship this movie has to offer. Adam Rayner plays the paterfamilias in a decent way and has a few tricks up his sleeve as well.
Conclusion
Tracers is a very typical boy-with-problems meets girl-with-problems kind of action movie with many predictable plot turns. Nonetheless the parkour adds something for the eye to see and the film has some surprises up its sleeve. If you’re looking for something fresh and new, this one might not be up your alley, but if you’re looking for a cliché ‘action’ movie with a love plot in the middle, this one might offer some proper entertainment.
Tracers (Blu-ray) - Movie Review,
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