Vantage Point: Enjoy the Car Chases
Nothing terribly original, but competent. This actually sums up my feelings of the entire movie, writes Justin McGuire
Vantage Point (2008)
This movie features a conspiracy of radical Muslims attempting to cause harm to the America. Vantage Point is an apolitical movie in that the Muslim radicals are simply the required villains; they could have been from any culture or creed, and, barring one explosion, the movie still would have worked just as well. Since Vantage Point doesn’t have new or anything significant to say about terrorism, this will be the last I’ll talk about it.
The movie is set in Spain, which features gorgeous architecture and small cars. It begins by showing the viewpoints of one character at a time. Each viewpoints ends on a cliffhanger right before it rewinds time to the beginning of the next viewpoint. We begin with the newpoint of a news crew, which nicely sets up the movie’s theme by showing the action through a dozen different cameras. Then we follow a Secret Service agent, a Spanish cop, an American tourist, and the President. Finally, we see the combined viewpoints of the rest of the motley assortment of characters who round out this tale, and at this point it’s just a normal movie.
I will say that the car chase scenes are fun and well done. Nothing terribly original, but competent. This actually sums up my feelings of the entire movie: well done, not terribly original, but competent.
Vantage Point is the first major film for virgin director Pete Travis and virgin writer Barry Levy. I have to give Travis credit for a job well done, and credit to Levy for balancing the pieces of this quirky movie. Even though it’s fluff, it’s competent fluff.
I’ve been using the word competent a lot this review. I can’t think of a better word to describe it. Maybe “adequate.” It shows smooth techniques, but certainly not much more. Vantage Point was ultimately entertaining in the way that a quirky adequate thriller can be entertaining–don’t think, enjoy the car chases, and it’ll be just okay.
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(2 votes, average: 3.5 out of 5)
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Well…I think the movie was bit overdone. Lot of wasted talent and unnecessary story development. Competent ? Too early to say that would be my take