Vantage Point

Vantage Point was an action/drama 2008 movie directed by Pete Travis. The screenplay was written by Barry L. Levy It also had a political side to it as it focused on an attempt to assassinate the President of the United States. It starred Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Edgar Ramirez, Eduardo Noriega, Ayelet Surer, and more. Every single one them was amazing in the movie, really investing themselves to their roles. That's already one thing I liked about it.

I got chills minutes into the movie. Literally having goosebumps while watching the first part of the movie. It was the atmosphere of the movie that was really intense and shocking. Maybe it caught me off guard cause usually, the movie spends the first part of the movie laying the ground of it, introducing the characters, setting the premise etc. Vantage point was not one of them. Right at the get go, guns were being shot, bombs were exploding, and people were dying. The whole mood was somber and pretty scary, especially if you imagine yourself in that scenario.

The energy of the film died down midway. It was around the 4th or 5th perspective that it started lose steam.  It suddenly became dragging in a sense, and I thought they were repeating scenes not really necessary for the construction of the movie. However, things started to pick up again towards the end when everything started coming together. In the last perspective where it was revealed who wanted to kill the president, the steps they took to ensure chaos, it all started to pick up again. While the movie died down a bit in the middle portion of the movie, the ending more than made up for it. The mystery was beginning to be solved and it ended with a thrill.

It's been compared to Rashomon, a 1950 Japanese movie by Akira Kurosawa. I've seen Rashomon and I think people are comparing the two movies because both employed the same style of film making. Rashomon used 4 perspectives to tell the story of 2 men and a woman, and how the two men fought for the woman. The 4th perspective cam from a person who witnessed everything. To be honest, aside from telling a single story using different perspectives, I didn't think the movies were the same. It had similar ideas, but I thought the attack Vantage Point had was different from that of Rashomon. Although, after reading some of the comments, I understood where these people were coming from.

Overall, I thought the movie was still pretty good. After watching the movie, I forgave that tiny bit in the middle of the movie that got me thinking the movie, which had a great start would end badly. It's probably something I'd watch again, and maybe the second time around, I'd appreciate it even more. But I still found it enjoyable and entertaining. I think that's what matters at the end of the day.