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.
After reading all these comments, perhaps I should consider myself lucky. I borrowed the movie from the library and the DVD jammed during the car crash. SO I STILL DON’T KNOW WHAT THE “DUMB” ending was. I sort of pieced it together with all the stopped images and interviews…and it looks like the predictable…all the bad guys kill themselves or each other until only the hero and numero uno bad guy are left standing, they duke it out and we always know who’s going to win, then we drift off into the sunset whispering platitudes about democracy , mom and apple pie.
So what did I miss?
OMG I HATED THIS MOVIE FOUND IT SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BORING I CANT BELIEVE THAT 1 OR 2 PPL ACTUALLY LIKED THIS FILM, FOR ME ONE OF THE WORST FILMS EVER, I HOPE THEY DONT MAKE ANYMORE IN THIS FORMAT.
Comon, guys. The movie was pretty decent. The actors played their parts superbly. Of couse Dennis Quaig isnt Harrison Ford!! He’s i dont know 40 years younger than he is. If you wanna see HF. instead of DQ dont watch the movie. Some huge plot holes were annoying though. I mean, does this movie have to defy every law of security. 1) president wasnt behind bulletproof glass, which is protocol. 2) they dont already have a cleared abulance and emt, again, protocol. 3) I dont care if that guys a cop… Check his bag!! Any security personell would be cleared b4 4ntering the plaza. The plaza mayor is a sec. nightmare! The presidents security advisor would have killed himself b4 letting the president in the plaza( and opening his arms,,Come on, shoot me!) Arrrrg. That was the most annoying part of the film for me. I really did like the actors, and people are going to call me out on this, but its better than Dark Knight. It provided different points of views(refreshing) without being dizzing. I recomend this movie for someone whos been bored by the repetitive plot of… Heehm.. THe bourne movies.
ME LIKE
The film vantage point is a pointless story that I believe tries way to hard to look sophisticated. Not only is the ending almost laughable, but when Denis Quad can run from a car that he has crashed several times, and was pined to a brick wall by a truck, that just tops off a “Brilliant” movie. I think under the right direction this film could have been an unforgettable movie, but instead it bored me after the thirds characters view point.
Okay, maybe this movie wasn’t as bad as I am making it out to be. But I can’t be blamed for making a mockery of this film, it did it to itself. After watching the previews, it was built up to be something so unbelievably special that after viewing the actual movie EVERYONE walked out of the theaters feeling disappointed. By the end, Vantage Point is such an unholy mess of drooling sentiment and sloppy loose ends that you’ll hate yourself for being suckered in.
Wow What a Nice Film……..
Yeah it’s Too Great,i think it will be my precious film that i have ever seen……………
I understand your frustration at the ending. What the Terrorist did was sabotage. It ruined the movie completely for me. It made it all seem pointless, but i still like the movie for its intensity and how it did pull it together.
I’ve been to many sites and read many reviews and comments, and I don’t get why everybody seems to hate the movie. I saw it tonight (rented it from Redbox) and LOVED it! Maybe nobody got the point of the movie? I mean, it WAS NOT supposed to be the “mindless thriller” that everybody here seemed to hope for. It was supposed to inspire thought, to show the complexities of terrorism, the various motivations, the threat that no one seems to be thinking about that terrorism may one day find help within our government. Like during the Cold War, when the State Dept. became infiltrated with communists (don’t even say that McCarthy was wrong, because recent research shows that almost all of his assertions were TRUE–Google it). And Whitaker WAS NOT an unnecessary character as some have suggested; his purpose was to represent the average patriotic American. His character DOES make sense when you consider that he had footage of the event that nobody else did. He knew that, and if I were in his situation, I would have felt compelled to act, too. Anybody who wouldn’t is selfish and unpatriotic. Vantage Point is my new favorite movie because the format (rewinds, different points of view) was fascinating and intriguing. It was a smart idea, and to think that it was only the director’s first movie, he did a GREAT JOB. For those who like thoughtless movies, this isn’t for you. This movie is for intelligent people who are concerned about terrorism and want to think about the parts of terrorism nobody talks about: the personal betrayals and agendas (we tend to assume that personal motivations do not exist). It was a well-made movie, and if you didn’t like it (like Rolling Stone), you probably didn’t get it.
the movie was ok. but the ending SUCKED!
I just viewed Vantage Point. It wasn’t so bad, but felt it moved slowly. Does anyone know, but I saw a movie with the same name and cast a few years ago. In that movie the attempt on the President failed and a priest was assainated instead.
Kenneth: “blah blah blah three syllable words blah blah blah”
The problem with Kenneth is that he hasn’t seen other movies or read…shit what are those things with paper and words…ahh right books. I can’t stress enough how simple-minded and bitter you sound. I’m being totally honest here and i gotta say NOTHING was hidden from me. Mathew Fox being one of the bad guys was far too obvious. Other than his performance sucking balls, he was overly defensive, protective, and endearing to his much much older secret service partner. If you’ve seen other movies or read books then you’d know thats a dead give away, with no character development, for a villian. Also, I didn’t believe for a second that Javier was having a little affair with that woman in the beginning. It was just too cliche. The arm on the wall lean in to make it seem like a kiss, come the fuck on now Kenneth we aren’t all brainless fatasses like urself. (btw dude if you respond to this with spelling or grammatical correction your just proving my point, thanks man) Sorry for getting mad at you specifically I just don’t like people like you.
How are all of you saying this movie is “Great” when you’ve got a paragraph explaining how disappointing it is?? It’s ok to say a movie is a dogshit disappointment when it has some actors you liked in totally unrelated movies. Are ya fuckin retarded?
How are movies like this made exactly? Im serious, does it come off a Shit Factory assembly line or what? On the one hand, i do like Dennis Quad and it seems like he put his heart into it which is commendable. On the other hand, the rest of the actors just seem greedy knowing full well this is just to fill up their bank account a bit more. Yes im putting forest whittaker in that category. Academy Awards don’t “allow” you to get sloppy, gotta keep pushing your craft.
I didn’t really know what to expect when i rented this for free. (I would never pay to see movies like this) I guess i wanted to be entertained with mindless action like everyone else. Nothing wrong with that. Make an action-movie where people scream, crashed into things, and shit blows up, I’m all for it. However, is it too hard to ask FOR THE FUCKING MOVIE TO MAKE FUCKING SENSE!!!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!??!?!! It’s like someone wrote “apple” on a banana. Maybe thats a bad analogy but you get my point. So, whoever made this needs to be taken out back with the people who made Date Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, Superhero Movie, and Meet the Spartans and shot. I can’t fathom how movies are made anymore. :(
The man in the window is a ghost????? Dope movie but that was kinda strange, the gun was controlled by a cellphone so why show a silhouet of a man?
First of all, I think Vantage Point isn’t half as bad as many condemn it to be. The negative points on the credibility and verisimilitude of the movie have all been discussed by others, so i think i’d focus on the credits of the film.
The point of this movie is its concept of fragmented narrative. The movie isn’t exactly selling its plot, but rather its concept of narrative and perspectives. You would have observed that as there were still many loose strings to the movie when the credits started rolling with characters being left ill-developed. “8 strangers. 8 points of view.” The accompanying captions for Vantage Point is already trying to draw its audience to its concept of fragmented narratives, with each stranger’s story fanning out into a spectrum and shedding light on the actual assasination of the president. You can tell that fragmentation was a theme running the entire movie, the first scene at the GNN where different views for the media cameras were deployed. Also, another symbolism for fragmentation and “different perspectives” is played out at the summit where you could actually see the different flags hung at the summit, representing the different perspectives of each country congregating in Spain for anti-terrorism.
The movie also used narratives that overlap progressively to parallel the elucidation of the truth. Each character’s story teasing up to the next character’s anecdote and the latter demystifying the former’s. And to the credit of the short mvovie’s plot, there’s sub-levels of truth slowly being revealed to the audience. Characters being totally different from what we thought, betrayals and mini plot twists. (One good example would be the first scene where the Spanish cop assigned to protect the mayor sees his lover with the hitman Javier. We are made to view it as a clandestine meeting. But only later via another angle, are we made to see the hostile conversation between the duo.)
I also believe that the are only benefits for choosing an ensemble cast for this movie. First, it’d only attract more movie-goers. Had it been a cast of virtual unknowns or struggling aspiring actors, the only selling point of the movie would only be its narrative form. Another point would be that each perspective would be played out in equal degree of importance. If there were only one outstanding actor/actress in the film, its audience could end up being distracted and one angle of the story would then be more biased. So think again before you dismiss the film as another unnecessarily “heavy-cast” silverscreen flop.
I do applaud the producers of this movie for offering something different to the conventional chronological narrative Tinseltown movies have to offer these days. The narrative style of Vantage Point is totally refreshing and worth every dollar spent on my ticket. Overall, i think this film deserves a 6.5/10.
Also…BAD
The fact the little Astra Quaid was driving got t-boned and smashed into a car – and looked relatively undamaged. In fact, in the scene where he does smash into the (second time) the bonnet is clearly shown as flying up, yet its almost intact in the next seen, and in the t-bone scene the car is clearly shown as partially crushed – indeed in most how-to book thats the way to disable a car (hit it square in the rear wheel) yet again in the next scene it only has a scrape..which wouldnt cause a 720 degree spin.
and then to surive a truck-to-wall t-bone sandwich…lost me..
Why would an airbag deploy? its a movie..
In all seriousness, vantage point was not that bad. It was quite well made, but there were a few annoying parts.
BAD
Dennis Quaid. Either hire Harrison Ford or leave it. He sucked.
Truck Wall….come on I’d love to see a titanium cage survive that..
Ending – Aww the terrorist had feelings after all..yeah right just hit the girl..
Annoying parts of the plot that were just dropped – the man in the window (filmed by Whitaker), the SS agents etc
Why were they abducting the Pres? it was just theorised as ‘retaliation’..
THE REWINDS…
Whitaker – who as seenearlier in the movie couldnt run fast – managed to get from an overpass, down, across the road etc before the ambulance made it 100meters or so..
GOOD
Loved the fact tha tthe movie did use the official SS codename for the President. – POTUS – (stand for President Of The United States lol)
Sigourney Weaver – good strong performance, though relatively minor
Whitakers look of confusion at everything..
Overall 7/10.
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
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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!
Thanks for the review. I am not going to see this one now. It appears that people like the Bank Job more.
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?
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
It was alot better than Semi-Pro!
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.
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.
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.
I have noticed Hollywood doesn’t care to much about realistic portrays of foreign countries or peoples, right of the top no characters looked spanish or had correct accent, the vehicles didn’t correspond either. Serbians are normally portrayed in accurately as well etc etc. The point is Hollywood keeps americans rather ignorant just too fatted their pockets at the expense of distorting facts. Horribly .
signed, the ending is utter crap, completely inconsequent and ruined an otherwise fairly decent movie
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!
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.
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.
@ Mkfreak2
thank you!
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.
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.
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.
you guys- it wasnt THAT BAD
STOP REWIND THAT!!!
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.
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.
Damn, that’s disappointing. The trailer made this look pretty interesting.