Tracers

Quickie Review:

Burdened by the debt he owes the Chinese mafia, Cam (Taylor Lautner) must find a quick way to earn money. In his desperation he joins a group of street runners who use their skills to commit high-paying crimes. Cam soon finds himself in criminal world with higher stakes than he expected. Other than the parkour scenes there is no other redeemable quality to Tracers. In fact there is a severe lack of quality in acting and story logic. This should have been a simple crime-heist movie with some parkour action in it. Instead there are numerous instances of forced drama that you will not care about at all. This movie is simply a waste of time.

Full Review:

Let's be blunt here, other than the Twilight fans nobody is looking forward to a Taylor Lautner movie. Then again I used feel the same way about Kirsten Stewart and Robert Pattinson, but lately they have been making good decisions in choosing their roles. So I thought I'd give Lautner the benefit of the doubt. I was wrong.

I'll give Tracers this, the parkour scenes were well done. There were plenty of these chase scenes and they did bring some excitement in an otherwise dull movie. It's not to the skill level of parkour master David Belle in the French film District B13, but the chase scenes were certainly the best parts of movie. That's where the kudos end for me.

I think everyone would agree that movies should try to make us empathize with the main characters. However, the writers try to achieve this by going overboard and giving everyone a troubled past. I mean we have characters who are in deep debt with the Chinese mafia, have been abandoned by their father, had a mother who died after being evicted, living on scraps on the streets, attempted sexual assault victim. With all these problems and horrible past I'm shocked they are even functioning human beings! Every other scene is some character deeply brooding about how their hoping for a better life. Then there is a love story that doesn't make sense beyond "hey you're kinda hot, I'm kinda hot. Let's get it on." Oh and of course that comes with an obligatory love triangle that you see coming from miles away. There is no chemistry because the dialog and the performances are cringe worthy. Honestly, why these people are even interacting together makes no sense. As if the movie wasn't bloated enough with unnecessary backstories, there are random twists and turns in the story that are very illogical because there was no previous setup.

I am sure some will say I'm overthinking this. No, I'd argue it's the writers who overthought this movie. There was a good hook here: using parkour skills to pull off heists. All that was needed was a simple story to give reason for these chase scenes, but they try to add drama with poorly written characters and the laughable performances didn't help either. Definitely not worth parkour running out to see it.

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Caught up in a dicey loan deal, Cam (Taylor Lautner), a New York bike messenger stumbles into the exhilarating world of parkour when he crashes into Nikki (Marie Avgeropoulos), a beautiful stranger. Quite reluctantly, Nikki introduces Cam to her crew of freerunners who appear to have some shady undercurrents. Desperate to be free of his debt, Cam gets caught up in a criminal world that begins to crumble around him as he struggles to protect that which is most important to him.

The slick parkour adds dynamic flair and physicality to the fight and chase scenes, while the seamlessly captured rhythm of the choreography makes the thrilling action easy to follow. The rapid pace forces you to keep moving forward, not allowing time to look back, much the same as the parkour requires you to constantly consider the next obstacle. The tactile sport serves the gritty aesthetic well and Lautner's ease of ability in the parkour scenes is mesmerising.

Apart from the action, Tracers offers an authentic look at the difficulties faced by people desperate to find their place in the world. The sincerity of the plot enables you to connect with Cam's plight, but the film avoids drowning in it's own drama by not taking itself too seriously. The initial scenes are fun and full of youthful exuberance as Cam hones his new skills, but as the stakes become higher, he must use these skills to stay alive.

Tracers is an action packed adrenaline rush with some gripping twists. Fans of freerunning will appreciate the integration of the sport while action lovers will enjoy a fresh perspective on the genre. There is nothing exceedingly complex to be found here, although the thrilling finale will leave you needing a moment or two to catch your breath.

He's handsome, she's gorgeous. He owes money lenders a lot of money, she's has some dough. It's your usual boy- meets-girl flick, but this time, there's a lot of running around and jumping, all in the name of parkour.

The only thing that kept me awake was the action, which, after awhile, got a bit blasé.

Lautner's character may have got into trouble because his desire to pay off his debts, but it certainly doesn't absolve him from using ill- gotten wealth to clear them.

2 out of 5 stars

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"Tracers" offers decent parkour action scenes and a better than average BMX action scene. The parkour isn't nearly as well choreographed as the opening scene in "Casino Royale" or most of the scenes in "Banlieue B13," and is often not credible because the characters make seemingly blind leaps on unfamiliar cityscapes, but the scenes are shown in a realistic manner and Taylor Lautner the other actors seem to do much of their own stunt work.

The script brings entirely new dimensions to the concept of "lame." It might pull passing marks as a high school creative writing assignment if it were submitted on a day when the instructor was in a good mood, but fails miserably as a movie script. The film often feels like some insipid urban hip hop dance movie with predominantly lily white protagonists and parkour substituted for dance.

The inciting incident involves the protagonist being distracted by the love interest to the point that he damages his property. In a fit of frustration, he discards it, even though it could easily be repaired and he needs it for work and he's desperate for money, then goes home to his well-equipped garage and does an analogous repair for his landlady's kid. Meanwhile, the girl feels bad because this person she doesn't know damaged property that could be replaced for a hundred dollars or repaired for fifty, so she buys him something to replace it that costs about a thousand dollars and somehow tracks him down and has it delivered to his place of employment.

This is just one example of the muddled motivations of the characters.

There's a Chinese bookie that wants his money right away. Why? It's not as if he needs the money. He should want his money on the street earning vigorish. If the borrower is still paying but running a little late, all the better as it provides an excuse to tack on extra charges.

Why do the hero and heroine fall in love? Because they're both so irresistibly attractive, but have absolutely no other active love interests and both have athletic bodies that they keep hidden beneath baggy sweats. Because they have troubled pasts and limited future prospects. Because a movie like this needs a central love story. The romantic angle seems superficial, to put it mildly.

If you're a criminal, why reveal part of your devious plan in a room that the police undoubtedly have wired for sound?

If you're planning something that requires a team of five people to use parkour to get out of a dangerous situation, wouldn't it make more sense to rehearse in that same area so everybody learns the terrain rather than keeping the location a secret?

If you need to stop the action for a scene with exposition explaining the meaning of the title to the audience, would it make sense to consider a different title?

What does jumping through windows have to do with parkour?

Characters are given flimsy generic backgrounds in a half-hearted effort to make them three-dimensional, but character development is pretty much nonexistent. The parkour moves are not nearly as extreme as in other films, but they're made to seem too easy. We don't see the grueling training that is necessary to master the techniques or any consideration of different approaches to clearing an obstacle. The dangers and need for practice are given lip service in dialogue, but not shown, other than a shot of a scar that has long since healed. Some of the free runners seem to be there to fill the screen, as there is little interaction between the characters. Dialogue is heavy on exposition with little subtext and even less humor. If there is a moral or theme, it would take a far more astute observer than this humble critic to understand it. Parkour is described as overcoming obstacles in your mind, but never becomes an allegory for overcoming the obstacles in life.

The film lacks passion. Not that it should be melodramatic or devolve into pathos, but everyone behaves as if they are on Quaaludes when they aren't scaling walls. The most dramatically intense scene occurs when something happens to a car that hasn't run in a very long time.

The parkour and BMX action scenes are fun to watch but not great. The story is a hackneyed and derivative disappointment. The actors do well with the action scenes and as well as can be expected with the dialogue they're given. The one love scene is shot so modestly it won't need to be edited out for network television and might not even cause much furor if shown in Muslim countries. Production values are adequate, although the use of jiggly-cam in static shots is distracting.

I'd really recommend watching this movie all the way through. It doesn't carry you all the way, so you need to have some preliminary interest(s) in the genres of this film, mainly parkour. If you are looking for a good parkour film, you're in luck and you should be pleased overall. Its also not bad for action, crime, or thriller genre-fans either.

The cast does a good job in their roles, though the script is fairly basic. The story-arc is intriguing throughout the majority, and while there are a few holes, I was left feeling content with the final execution. There is a very good amount of parkour-"action", so if you have any interest in this area, you should be well pleased.

I had no interest in the teen-drama aspect of the film, but the other aspects of the film allowed me to endure this weak point. They were probably trying to appeal to the female, Taylor Lautner fan-crowd on the romantic aspects of the story line. This is the first film I've seen him star or co-star in, and I will say that he did a decent job. It looked like he did a fair amount of the parkour moves himself, so he has my respect for his dedication to training for this film.

If you are a fan of District B13 movies, the video game Mirror's Edge, or just a parkour enthusiast in general, I really think you'll enjoy this flic overall.