VANTAGE POINT

- Vantage Point
Vantage Point is an action/thriller where the chief element of the plot is laid out in the first 10-15 minutes. The US President is shot whilst at a summit in Spain, after which there are 2 bomb blasts. It’s evidently a terrorist act. What follows is a view of the same event from the perspective of 7 different characters, from one of the President’s secret service agents, to a US tourist who captures the event on his camcorder. As each perspective is played out, new twists and turns are added, creating a scenario that is astoundingly more complex and dastardly than would be imagined.

It’s an interesting method of unravelling the plot to show what really happened, and whilst some reviewers have stated that the number of characters appears to be too many, I feel that 8 (the first, and most simple, perspective shown is that of a news director covering the event) is enough to form a very diverse cross section of characters whose interaction overlaps several times during the 27 minute period that is being played out. The significance of some characters in the overall plot deepens from being a cameo sort of role in one perspective, to that character’s more in depth involvement being played out in a future perspective.

I didn’t find the re-enactment of the plot to be tedious, since each one added relevant, and at times, completely surprising, details to create the overal story. However, the dialogue on the whole left little room for character development. Also, there were some rather obvious continuity errors in a chase scene, where the cars involved went from being damaged to pristine, to damaged again. Maybe I’m being picky, but for a person who loves a really involved and daring chase scene, it’s important that when a car loses its front bumper, it remains lost.

Overall though, I enjoyed the film. It was fast paced, action packed, and an example of what terrorists could so easily do in the future to harm international leaders. In some ways, the 90 minute duration could have done well to be extended so that we could get to know some characters outside of that 27 minute period, but for what was being told, the duration wasn’t too bad.