Movie Review: Vantage Point

Come on!

I mean, really.

Ever since I saw the first trailers for this one, I thought it looked like a fun thriller.

It’s not fun.

And it doesn’t thrill.

William Hurt is the President of the United States, who’s in Salamanca giving a speech to kick off an anti-terrorism summit. He will be referred to for the duration of this review as the “POTUS,” which is what they call him in the movie.

Dennis Quaid is the Secret Service agent who previously took a bullet for this particular POTUS and is still a little shakier in the field than he should be.

Matthew Fox from Lost is another Secret Service guy.

Forest Whitaker is an American tourist capturing the wonder of everything around him on his trust video camera.

Sigourney Weaver is an ice cold field producer for a news network covering the speech.

And there are other people in it, too.

And then the POTUS gets filled full of bullets, and everybody saw a piece of the puzzle!

Can they all put their pieces together in time to find the SHOCKING truth?

Whatever, man.

This thing plays less like a film and more like something somebody slapped together on their computer.

Rather than being a linear narrative, the story is told over and over again from each point of view. And at the end of each segment, the footage annoyingly rewinds to the tune of overwrought music before starting over again at the clock for another round of “What did THIS person see?”

The performances are good. There’s an okay story in there. But it’s all so buried under so much silly.

Just tell good stories.

This thing is all gimmick, and it can’t stop screaming, “Hey! Look at me! I got a gimmick! Look! Look at my gimmick!”

No, thanks.

Next!

Review: Detective Comics #841

My review of issue 841 of Detective Comics — featuring Batman! — is up now at my friend Bill “Jett” Ramey’s website, Batman on Film.

You can check it out right here.

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I can’t recommend this one enough. It’s got yet another awesome Paul Dini script, the unique and gorgeous art of Dustin Nguyen, massive amounts of action and detective work, and some great twists.

And thanks again to Jett for the opportunity.

Previous reviews for Batman on Film:

Detective Comics #840

Detective Comics #839

Batman #672