Vantage Point (2008)

This is what happens when you take two films that are sort of similar and then smash them together. You get movies like Vantage Point. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I did enjoy this movie, I just did not love it. Now, the two films in question here are Rashomon, a famous Japanese crime thriller, and any James Bond film. Now, mash those two films together, and take away the James Bond name, and you’ll have something resembling Vantage Point. The film follows the assassination of the President of the United States, witnessed from eight different viewpoints. The film gets progressively better as it goes along. It starts out as a convoluted, uncomfortable, and odd mess for the first thirty minutes of the film. Then, it goes to the viewpoint of Forrest Whittaker’s character, who actually has a heart. I actually cared about this characters, and I was enjoying my time with him. But then I saw the transitioning white light fifteen minutes later, and all I could think was-“NOOOO! What was good was ending, and I’m gonna end up hating this.” But I was wrong. It seems the Forrest Whittaker whipped the filmmakers into shape with his segment, as the film did get progressively better as it went along. The film started to make more sense, it was paced better, the actors were better, and the film was just a much-better made action thriller. And that took me by surprise, and it was a good surprise. The film turns itself on its head, it is actually pretty well-made, and I just thought it was good. If you have some free time on your hands, check it out. But it’s nothing to go nuts over. NOTE: Sigourney Weaver is listed as one of the main stars of this film, but she is not. She has an extremely small role here. Listing her as one of the main cast members is about the same as listing Drew Barrymore in the same line of names as Neve Campbell in Scream. Wait, they did that. And they did it here for the same reason-star power. And there’s nothing wrong with that, I was just saying that she is in the first ten-or-so minutes of the film and then about a minute more. So don’t go expecting her to have a role as big to the film as her role in Alien. I was, and I was let down. So just warning you.
8/10