Vantage Point

So I watched this movie on Friday, usually when I'm watching a movie and I have a lot of free time, I will Tweet about this film and give some thoughts to it prior to my full review. I was going to do that for Vantage Point but I soon realized, given the subject matter of the movie, that probably wouldn't have been appropriate given the special events that happened on Friday. I'll leave it at that...

Vantage Point is a action thriller film that came out in 2008. I've written about the 2000's and movies that came out around that time quite a bit, especially films centering on terrorism and the changing perception we had towards movies like these as time has gone by. You can be sure, I will be discussing that in this review.

Vantage Point follows the events that take place in a matter of about 30 minutes to an hour in Spain as the President of the United States (played by William Hurt) is making an appearance in the country to promote some new anti-terrorism agreement (the circumstances he's there are pretty vague and really not that important in the full scheme of things).

The movie centers on this event and an assassination attempt on the President. The way the movie stands out though is that it goes through the events that happen in the movie from one person's perspective and then rewinds the events to show them again from the perspective of someone else.

For example, the movie starts off with Sigourney Weaver as a news producer capturing the event on the news.

Everything that happens, happens on screen in this news organization and a lot of the shock and awe is taken from the reactions that these people have watching the events from the camera lens.

After the key events happen, the movie then rewinds and follows a Secret Service Agent (played by Dennis Quaid) who is returning from an extended absence to the President's security detail. The movie goes through the events of the day through his eyes and what he experiences.

Then the movie rewinds again and picks up from another perspective, and another after that, with each one the mystery behind the assassination attempt unravels until everything is complete. The stakes are high as the President's life is on the line. The movie has a couple of interesting car chases, gunplay, and has a pretty unique premise.

Is it good? Well... not really.

It's... entertaining? I guess. Again, it has a kind of interesting concept and I think it would be fun to see other movies that have a similar way of telling the story, but there's a couple of issues within this film that really make it hard to watch, boring, or just too cheesy to be taken seriously.

The first element is the lack of a central character. I get it, the movie has a unique style with the differing perspectives and that makes it difficult to center in on one, but every character in this film is really wooden and boring.

Their entire character is usually shoved into a five minute introduction at the beginning of their perspective section in the film. The plot is so paper thin and the characters are really just place holders, overall, it's just weak.

Dennis Quaid... a part of me wants to believe that he's a good actor but its performances like this that don't really impress me. He just seems out of breath the entire time. They're trying to make Dennis Quaid Jack Bauer but it doesn't exactly work.

Forrest Whitaker is incredibly useless in this movie. He's this random American dude who has this weird fascination with filming everything he's seeing. I'm not sure why he thinks its his job to help the police. On top of that he's got this weird obsession with this random little girl he meets in the crowd and it's all together just really strange.

The President is kind of awful in this movie. I like William Hurt, but similar to Quaid, he has performances at times that are just really wooden and aren't that great. On top of that, the actions of the President are ideological BS and wouldn't be what the President would do in a situation like this. There's not a lot I can say about his character without giving some of the movie away, but some of the actions he makes in this movie are just stupid. Now I could overlook some of the actions he takes if his performance was at all good, but a crumby performance compiled on with stupid actions just makes me hate this character.

Sigourney Weaver... well she might as well have not been in this film to be honest.

The unfortunate thing about this movie is that it had a lot of people that I'm pretty sure I've seen do some good stuff. Matthew Fox plays Dennis Quaid's partner and he was in his prime with Lost still going strong when this film came out. I've seen everyone in this film do good work in other movies and yet this reduces them to just a simple action film.

It's by no means an absolutely horrible movie, but it just doesn't have much depth to it besides appealing to the people who want a good action film in a time where we felt like we needed simple stories about taking down the terrorists with some good old American kickassery.

It's fascinating watching this movie in 2017. I went and saw it when it first came out in 2008, I was intrigued by that very same simple concept of taking down the terrorists. And I think I still have that mindset from time to time (I mean I'm re-watching the first season of 24 and I still love it), but I think that mindset has evolved since.

If you think about it in context, Vantage Point came out at the end of the Bush Administration and took a perspective of terrorism that is very different to what it looks like now.

After 9/11 we had such a doomsday look at terrorism (for good reason) and it came out in the stories that were told at the time.

Terrorism used to be long drawn out plans with sophisticated plots because that was what was exciting at the time and it actualized our fears of the times. These plots would be highly lucrative with inside-me, elaborate explosions, and incredibly potent aiming to carry out huge plots like the assassination of the President, terrorists acquiring nukes, and utilizing bio weapons on American soil.

It's just interesting contrasting that with the works of fiction today in a post-Obama Presidency. Terrorism is still often on the headlines we see today and there is definitely still fear, but it has turned with the times. Today, ISIS and home grown radicalization are more common, centering on the inside men and their plots to turn the US against itself. The over the top plots seen in movies like Vantage Point are rarely ever done because they've been overused and seem unrealistic now.

I'll be interested to see the shift in fiction as the Trump Presidency begins, but for now, the mindset we live in today makes movies like Vantage Point seem a little bit dated.

Overall, I think I remember Vantage Point with fonder memories than it actually deserves.

 The concept is quite unique and probably should have been used for another film, but the subject matter within the film is just generic and trying to cash in on a time that dates the movie now instead of keeping it relevant for years to come.

The action is mediocre, the acting is hokey, even from a group of performers that have released good films, overall, it's a movie you can probably skip.

If you're interested in seeing a movie in a totally different format, you should probably check out Roshamon, but if you can't find that, I guess Vantage Point has enough unique points to get your gears running, but overall it's pretty boring.

But those are my thoughts on Vantage Point. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. One thing I'll give the movie credit for is a pretty good soundtrack. It's your pretty generic action espionage thriller music but that doesn't necessarily make it bad. Enjoy!