Vantage Point Review
Thanks for checking out our Vantage Point review. If you’d like, there’s a video version of this review at the bottom of the post.
Vantage Point is a film that has a couple of things going for before I even step into the theater to watch it. First of all, it’s a little different. I’m always interested to see films that take a different approach to conventional linear storytelling. They don’t all turn out as well as Memento did, but it’s still interesting to see. Telling a story from different perspectives isn’t exactly 100% original, but it’s not done often. Also, I confess to being a big Denis Quaid fan. Put that man in anything and I’ll be curious at the very least to see it. So did Vantage Point take advantage of these things or squander them? Well… both.
THE GENERAL IDEA
Vantage Point takes place during a major world event where the President of the United States (played by William Hurt) has assembled a massive alliance of world leaders in a new plan to fight global terrorism. The movie happens all on the afternoon of a huge outdoor press conference in Spain with the leaders in front of cheering crowds. But when the President steps up to the microphone to address the world, gun shots ring out and the President goes down. Moments after that, sounds of explosions echo and blast through the crowd. This incident is then replayed for the audience several times, each time from the perspective of a different person. The President, one of his secret service agents, a tourist, a terrorist and a couple of others all sewn together for the audience leading up to the climax of the film when all the various perspectives come together.
THE GOOD
The concept of the film worked. The whole idea of weaving what is really going on to the audience through different perspectives and the new information that comes from each character, and how that new information sheds light on information we learned from a previous one was executed well. It starts us off just from the perspective of the average citizen of the world as we first see the events happen from the view of the world news agency (they can’t call it CNN… so it’s something like GNN or something like that) and then we learn more from each progressive charcter’s “Vantage Point”.
The ensemble cast of the film was quite solid really, no one really stuck out as a weakness (aside from Forest Whitaker, who is always great but whose character was totally pointless and uncessesary which made having an actor like him in there a distraction) and they all fit pretty well into their respective roles. Quaid was quite strong actually, but I expected nothing less anyway.
THE BAD
It’s not really fair to hold the marketing of a film against a movie… but in today’s Hollywood, the marketing is now very much a part of the film’s experience unfortunately, and the marketing of this film absolutely RUINED significant parts of the movie for me. I obviously can’t go into too much detail here without crossing into spoiler territory, but it’s enough to say that as I was watching the movie I realized that a couple of things that were SUPPOSED to be twists and surprises later on, were already ruined because of something I saw in the trailer. This drove me NUTS.
Although the movie executed the whole “telling the story from different Vantage Points” pretty well, the mechanism they used got quite annoying. As each characters point of view was finished being shown, the screen would freeze, then rewind through what we just saw, and a clock would show at the bottom of the screen letting us know that it was Noon again. The first time they did it, it felt out of place… but after that it felt like they were treating us in the audience like idiots. As a matter of fact, instead of creating added dramatic tension to the movie, the technique made people in the theater laugh out loud each time they did it.
THE ENDING OF THIS MOVIE WAS BEYOND FRUSTRATING, UNBELIEVABLE and pure utter nonsense. I wish more than anything I could tell you how this thing ends, but clearly that would be a spoiler, but I will say this… the film comes to its end with a terrorist, doing something so stupid, so ridiculous, so unbelievable that it just sours the taste of the whole film for me. I want to rant and rave about how bad this ending was… but I can’t… and that makes me even more frustrated. AARRGGGHH!!!!!
OVERALL
Vantage Point is a mediocre story told in an interesting way that unfortunately tends to drag itself down by some of the repetativness and techniques it employs. A decent job by the ensembles cast carries the film most of the way, and then is nearly completely ruined by a plot device at the end that soured the whole taste of the movie for me. Overall I give Vantage Point a 5 out of 10.
26 Comments, Comment or Ping
Kristina
Damn, that’s disappointing. The trailer made this look pretty interesting.
Feb 22nd, 2008
jason
I am 100% behind you guys on this review! I also beleive that the trailers and TV spots ruined this movie completely.
The first trailer that came out had just enough mystery to
get me excited without giving much away.
However, the successive series of TV spots that have aired in the last few weeks have given away almost the entire film including the major plot twists.
This is a trend that I HATE with a passion. You don’t know how angry I was the first time I saw one of these TV spots and realized I had seen the whole damn movie!
John, I am here to tell you that I did NOT choose to go see Vantage Point solely because of these ads.
Movie companies should be ashamed of themselves for letting the marketing people do this.
There are so few mystery movies these days that actually have any mystery to them when you go to the theater. To have another one ruined just hurts the genre that much more.
Feb 23rd, 2008
Antonio
Dennis Quaid rocks (Innerspace FTW). I’m so disappointed this movie was not as good as expected. I guess I’ll just wait till it gets to the dollar theater here.
Feb 23rd, 2008
pete
STOP REWIND THAT!!!
Feb 23rd, 2008
JAMIE
you guys- it wasnt THAT BAD
Feb 23rd, 2008
Mkfreak2
What was so bad about the ending?
The whole movie was filled with these cliches and plot devices, but it’s a fun action thriller that really isn’t supposed to be taken seriously. It’s superficial nonsense, but it’s really fun to watch.
Feb 23rd, 2008
alfie
i agree with you john about the twists ruined in the trailer….so fucking lame to have given away as much as they did that if i hadn;t have seen the trailer I might have liked it a little more but not much.
i also agree that the ending was terrible.
i hate this attitude that “oh its just a mindless popcorn film filled with cliches its not to be taken seriously”
in that case they should charge tickets on a basis with which films are meant to be taken seriously and which films are not and we cna pay accordignly because I pay the same amount to see all films and I am sic k of this defense that we shouldn’t expect certain types of films to be good or smart. why the fuck can’t we? we can;t ewe expect more from movies then to be riddled with horrible cliches and be superficial nonsense./
we can deliver ebntertainment with a brain…it can be done.
this film was a huge let down for me.
and mkfreak the film makers did not think they were making a brainless action film…this has no humor about itself at all. it is very obvious that everyone involved is taking this film very seriously and that makes it all the more ridiculous when it turns out to be such a mess.
vantage point, everyone in the room is no dumber for having seen you..i award toy no point and may god have mercy on your soul.
Feb 23rd, 2008
Patrick/Adele
the entire cinema wanted their money back,rewind that,
we always get scorched when william hurt is in a movie.
Quaid.i am very saddened to see your career failing like this.
roshanon has struck again…..and very stupid endings realy are getting popular,what an insult to us the consumer,good luck filling the new bigger theaters your building with our money.
Feb 23rd, 2008
JAMIE
@ Mkfreak2
thank you!
Feb 24th, 2008
everysence
I’ll take a guess and say the cam recoders were the marketing for sony or something right?
I thought this movie would be great.. to bad its another hollywood crapfest like the rest.
Feb 24th, 2008
sfsilver
When the “This war will never end line” was delivered, which was supposed to be a serious moment in the film, my friend and I just burst out into gales of laughter. Cliched clap-trap.
They also changed the films “rules’ midway - all the first four “rewinds” had a specific one character vantage point focus and then all of the sudden in the middle of the movie (about the same time we see the already spoiled from the trailers big secret)the focus became muddled and dispersed and it was clear the little device they had working didn’t have legs so the filmmakers and writers just gave up on it midway.
The ending was silly and unbelievable. A waste of time for a really very talented cast. Sad.
Feb 25th, 2008
Mile High MaYHeM
EVERY FILM SHOWS TOO MUCH IN THE PREVIEWS NOW A DAYS!!!!!
I REGONIZED ALMOST EVERY SCENE OF THIS FILM!!! BEFORE SEEING IT!!!!
GOOD REVIEW!
BEST LINE OF THE MOVIE: DENNIS QUAID IN THE T.V. CONTROL ROOM:
REWIND THAT!!!!! HAHAHAH
GOOD REVIEW YOU SAID EVERYTHING I WAS THINKING. AND YES PEOPLE ACTUALLY LAUGHED OUT LOUD DURING THE REWINDING POINTS!
Feb 26th, 2008
Jean-Baptiste
signed, the ending is utter crap, completely inconsequent and ruined an otherwise fairly decent movie
Feb 28th, 2008
alex s
The movie was basically ok in terms of action however, I would like to point out that the next time a film is supposed to take place in a white european country such as Spain, that they shouldn’t film it in Mexico with such obviously non-Spanish european faces. It was pretty obvious that the people in the film were not Spaniards. I expected to see Spain, not Mexico. It threw the movie off for me.
Mar 1st, 2008
Holly
The movie was really good in my opinion. Although I must agree with you. The few last rewinds they did made everyone in disbelief. At your next point I disagree, the rewind created a lot of tension. This is a great movie to see on the big screen and is totally worth a shot.
Mar 2nd, 2008
Brad
Completely agree with how annoying the rewind was…and I’m trying to figure out what the terrorists did that was so “dumb”. I have a nagging question about the movie for anyone who saw it. The vantage point that follows the “mayors cop” who ends up under the overpass…who was followed by the two Secret Service agents. Were they not there at the end of his “vantage point”? I ask because they were mysteriously missing from the rest of the movie? Am I missing something? Trying to ask this question without giving away too much.
Mar 3rd, 2008
billy
It was alot better than Semi-Pro!
Mar 4th, 2008
toby
This movie was very lame! I just saw it and my date and I were both scratching our heads wondering what the reason was for the plot to have even been hatched. I don’t care if I ruin the end or not. With all of the mayhem and murder handed out by these goons, it makes no sense to me that they would not have run the spoiled little ice cream girl over like a squirrel. 1/2 star out of 5 stars.
Mar 5th, 2008
john
i totally agree with you in the ending. It was so dumb, but i thought the movie was ok, i gave it a 6 out of 10.
Mar 6th, 2008
Ed
Brad,
I just saw it tonight (3/6) and went here to see what others thought of it. Overall, I agree that it had its flaws but overall; entertaining. I also wondered what happened to the Secret Service guys chasing the Cop. Both of them including the Barry Bonds look a like were last seen firing their pistols full on in what you think is at The Cop, but no sign after that. Also I was not convinced on the role (and why) the cop was playing in the caper. Not enough there to make me believe he would bring in the “item” to the Square that he did…
Mar 7th, 2008
Claire
I saw this over the weekend. I agree with everything in your review, but I loved the movie, including the ending. It was the funniest unintentional comedy I have ever seen. My friend and I could barely walk to the car when it was over because we were practically falling over from laughing. It made me really really happy.
Mar 11th, 2008
Emily K
i totally thoght the rewinding in this movie was uncalled for that many times. people in the theater got so mad everytime it happened that everyone sighed and yellled out ohhhhh come on. there was a group of about 25 teens and all of them got so annoyed they got up and left. i have to disagree that the movie was good, it was horrid and not worth the money. the previews for this movie gave it away. i hated it and thought it needed a lot more work. this movie got non interesting when you saw they same scene five or four times. i think the actors in this movie have now ruined their careers. im sorry but i thought the movie sucked. the movie producer made it seem like the audience was stupid and did not pay attention.
Mar 13th, 2008
Matthew
What a fantastic action film that was COMPLETELY RUINED BY AN ENDING THAT SO RIDICULOUS IT WAS HARD TO BELIEVE.
When will Hollywood start to care about believable scripts?
Mar 15th, 2008
John
Thanks for the review. I am not going to see this one now. It appears that people like the Bank Job more.
Mar 16th, 2008
Vivian
(Type your comment here. Make sure you’ve read the commenting rules before doing so)
I agree with most of the comments. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the movie, but the rewinds drove me crazy!
I also wanted to know what happened to those two secret service agents in the end, and the fantastic footage shot by Forest Whittaker. To tie him into the movie they should have done something like have him on a talk show showing his footage getting paid! Or marrying Anna’s mother or something!
Mar 17th, 2008
jered
i thought pretty much the same as you except i thought the ending was ok.but there is something i noticed.
in all the car sceenes no airbad deploys in in that one sceen not a single airbag deployed and to me this was quite annoying
Mar 17th, 2008
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