While I, too, had seen or heard little praising Vantage Point when I sat down to watch it, filled with expectations of mediocrity and unoriginality, I was pleasantly surprised by this exciting and well-crafted action thriller. I must admit that it’s not the most intense or most intricate movie released recently, but Vantage Point is certainly intense and intricate enough to merit your time and money.
The Movie
It’s difficult to thoroughly summarize the movie without spoiling the myriad surprises and plot twists that occur throughout. Essentially, though, the story revolves around the attempted assassination of the President of the United States during an appearance in Salamanca, Spain as part of a summit addressing international terrorism. The pivotal half-hour surrounding the assassination attempt is presented from eight different characters’ perspectives, each of which reveals a bit more about the respective character and his/her motives and involvement in the day’s events while simultaneously moving the story forward toward its climax.
For those who would insist upon familiar film conventions, Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid), a Secret Service Agent on detail with the President, could probably be most easily classified as the movie’s antagonist and main character, but fellow Agent Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox); tourist Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker); President Ashton (William Hurt); Enrique (Eduardo Noriega), a local police officer; Javier (Edgar Ramirez), an apparent assassin; Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver), the on-location producer covering the event for international news network GNN; and members of the terrorist group behind the assassination attempt are all featured prominently.
Revolving around the hidden identities and unknown workings of the terrorists involved, the story incorporates aspects from the mystery and thriller genres, complete with an intricate story and an appropriate number of plot twists. The multiple-perspective format of the movie really highlights the mystery and thriller aspects of the movie, as each character’s perspective presents a slightly different outlook, revealing a little more information about the day’s events and the various players involved.
However, the creative staff was careful not to let the intricacies of the story interfere with its entertainment value, and, to this ends, the movie is filled with as much action as the typical action adventure film. The excitement generated by this plethora of action scenes works well with the tension and intrigue of the overall story. Moreover, via the multiple-perspective format, the movie contains a few cliffhangers that only further amplify its intensity. (In the context of this movie, I would compare these cliffhangers to those featured in TV episodes just before the commercial break or to the cliffhangers often employed at the end of a chapter in an adventure novel. They do not necessarily involve the most urgent conflicts but are nonetheless stimulating and frustratingly inconvenient.)
The insertion of such cliffhangers creates a unique viewing experience, as there is seldom an opportunity to incorporate the potentially prolonged suspense of a cliffhanger into a movie without the story becoming strained and the device seeming extraneous; however, the multiple-perspective format of Vantage Point allows cliffhangers to be employed seamlessly and fluidly, complementing the movie’s action and adding their own suspense. Combined with the general tension and exhilaration of the movie, the further anxiety that arises from these cliffhangers creates an intense web of excitement in which the viewer can’t help being entangled.
Also complementing the action of the movie is the cinematography, which frequently places the camera on the Spanish streets with the action, bobbing and jerking with the characters in mimicry of a handheld camera. Although this cinematographic style is often employed in action films to heighten the thrill, I can’t recall many that use it so extensively or with such success as Vantage Point does.
Unfortunately, I can’t really say that the acting is quite such a success, despite the movie’s almost-all-star cast. However, I think the failure of big names like Quaid, Whitaker, Fox, Hurt, and Weaver to stand out is due primarily to the structure of the movie, which prevents any one character from being thoroughly developed and, in turn, makes it impossible for any actor to stand out. To his credit, writer Barry Levy did manage to construct nearly a dozen characters with more depth than the traditional cast of supporting characters, but this style prevents the characters from being developed such that a single actor could steal the show. As such, Quaid, Whitaker, Fox, Hurt, and Weaver all deliver appropriately noticeable performances, but relative unknowns like Noriega and Ramirez also deliver notable performances, making an impression even amidst the organized chaos of the movie and the list of more prominent stars.
Special Features
While the special features do not impart any great insights upon the viewer, they do certainly give a thorough treatment of all aspects of the project, and, although they are a bit lengthy for the casual fan, those interested should find them quite satisfying.
The first featurette, ‘An Inside Perspective’, is the conventional making-of feature, except that it covers almost every imaginable aspect of the project much more thoroughly than most other making-of features do. The interviews with the cast and crew address several facets of the story, complete with explorations of each featured character and his/her motives, which provide viewers with a much better appreciation of the true complexity of the story and its characters, some of which gets a bit lost amidst all the gunshots, explosions, and chase scenes of the movie. While discussing the characters, Director Pete Travis also explains the casting decisions and why each actor/actress was chosen for his/her role.
This featurette also touches a bit on the movie’s themes of relativism and the importance of individual perspective in shaping one’s experiences. These themes are further highlighted in the featurette when the cast and crew discuss the production of the movie, which consisted of reshooting the same events several times, with the actors varying their performances each time to fit the particular perspective being portrayed. Awareness of this minor detail, which could easily be overlooked during viewing (as it was by me), should convince viewers that Vantage Point is quite cerebral, despite its outward appearance as an action film.
Finally, the featurette covers some other production aspects as well, exploring the movie’s cinematography and the editing techniques employed, revealing some of the camera setups used during shooting, and even allowing the composer a few minutes to discuss the movie’s score.
The second featurette, ‘Plotting an Assassination’, further explores the story, focusing not only on the characters and their motives but also on the way their individual stories interlace to form a larger story, just as the pieces of a puzzle combine to complete the whole. Additionally, this featurette emphasizes the goal of the story to convey a human message (as opposed to a political one), specifically the idea that relativism is ingrained in the human experience.
The third featurette, ‘Coordinating Chaos’, focuses primarily on the movie’s stunts, revealing some of the techniques used to capture explosion scenes, chase scenes, and car crashes.
For those who enjoy the intricacy of the movie, the ‘Vantage Viewer: GPS Tracker’ feature allows viewers to track the locations of the eight primary characters throughout the movie. The feature appears as a panel at the bottom of the screen that highlights each character’s location relative to the city and to the other characters. Although it’s not the most sophisticated feature and enjoying it fully requires watching the movie in its entirety, it’s a unique feature and a respectable attempt at a more engaging viewing experience.
Additionally, the feature ‘Surveillance Tapes’ features a brief outtake, and, finally, commentary by Director Pete Travis is available for the movie.
Presentation
Despite being in high definition, the disc menu isn’t overly spectacular, although it is undeniably crisp and clear, complete with moving video throughout, appropriate music, and a consistent theme. Most importantly, the menu is fluid and easy to navigate, but, unfortunately, it is still a bit overly simplistic for a Blu-ray menu and, moreover, is far too standard for Blu-ray Discs from Sony. Although it is nonetheless well-crafted, a little more originality among their products would be nice.
Laudably, the special features are in high definition, which only further enhances appreciation for the movie. And, of course, the movie is in high definition, although this is not as evident as it is in other films. Naturally, the picture quality is amazing, but there are only a few scenes where it really stands out in all its glory, as the rough, action-oriented, handheld-esque cinematography prevents viewers from fully enjoying the clarity of the picture. On the other hand, the action-packed audio is extraordinarily robust in surround sound.
Overall
While it doesn’t have the most powerful story, Vantage Point is certainly an intricate and intense action thriller. And although the action-oriented cinematography doesn’t allow viewers to fully appreciate the movie’s HD picture quality, the package is undeniably clear and well-crafted, with even the menu and special features presented in high definition. Most importantly, though, the story’s exciting action and suspenseful mystery and intrigue, complemented by the movie’s unique format, create an exhilarating viewing experience that appeals both on cerebral and sensory levels. Overall, Vantage Point isn’t quite original enough to be outstanding, but it’s certainly thrilling enough to entertain and please a wide range of viewers.