Vantage Point Review

Conventional wisdom says that no two people see the same event unfold in exactly the same way.  Everything that we witness is filtered by our individual perspective; i.e., physical location, state of mind, existing biases, and personal experiences.  It is the intricacy and drama of the phenomenon known as Vantage Point that sets the stage of this utterly disappointing movie (for me, anyway; my hubby enjoyed it: The Bard's Review).

What could have been a fresh and unique way of storytelling ended up feeling interminable and stale.  The main plot revolved around the attempted assassination of the fictional President of the United States.  The movie introduces us to several witnesses to the crime, and then spends the rest of the film replaying each person's vantage point so that the viewer can see the event from the unique standpoint of the character.  This is the feature of the movie that I thought showed a lot of promise.  Unfortunately, the characters become overshadowed by unending car chases, gaping holes in the plot, and a spectacularly unbelievable ending.

Throughout the course of the movie we begin to see the terrorist plot unfold and realize how they were able to get away with the assassination attempt.  Although the terrorist plot was suspenseful at times, I felt that there were too many "how convenient" moments that made me roll my eyes.  All I can say is that this fictional President had the Keystone Kops version of the Secret Service security detail.  They were incredibly incompetent, even for a movie.

I am probably in the minority on this movie, but I just didn't enjoy it.  In full disclosure, I am not generally an "action-and-adventure" kind of movie-goer so this isn't my usual taste in movies to begin with.  Still, I did thoroughly enjoy the intelligence--and yes, fast-paced action--of the Jason Bourne movies, so I thought that I would similarly enjoy Vantage Point. 

The cast is all top rate (William Hurt, Forrest Whitaker, Matthew Fox, etc.) and the general idea of the movie is interesting.  There is a great deal of action and the acting is good.  I just didn't buy into the story as a viewer, and that doesn't bode well from my point of view.