"Vantage Point" Review

"Vantage Point" follows in a time honored tradition of a classic movie gimmick. Ever since "Rashomon" set the tone, gimmicky movies have told a simple story through several points of view, several different angles, and often with unreliable narrators. "The Usual Suspects" and "Memento" are the current high standard of modern day point of view films. "Vantage Point" tries to reach those standards while blowing things up over and over in about 10 different ways. To this end, "Vantage Point" has a few problems.

An anti-terror summit in Spain promises a groundbreaking deal between US President Ashton and the heads of state around the world. Secret Service Agent Thomas Barnes, who took a bullet for the President a year ago, is back on detail with his partner Agent Taylor. American tourist Harold Lewis is recording the event on his camcorder. Network producer Rex Brooks is handling the news coverage of the event. Spanish cop Enrique is there to guard the town mayor, and there are several other suspicious types running around. Naturally the anti-terror meeting has terrorist attacks, as the President is shot, there are sounds of a second blast outside, and a third bomb nearly destroys the area. But through the different vantage points of the characters, it is discovered that nothing is what it seems- and that these attacks are just the beginning.

"Vantage Point" tells the story in about five different 10-15 minute long points of view, then wraps up with a final segment tying everything together. Director Pete Travis is lucky to use this tactic, because if "Vantage Point" was told in a straight forward way, it would likely last under an hour. As such, it's lucky to get to under 90 minutes. We are meant to see the same event from many different points of view, but seeing the same things- and same explosions- over and over feels repetitive. And we could have done without "rewinding" everything at the end of each point of view segment, then showing a ticking clock exactly like 24 does.