8 Blickwinkel

'Vantage Point' is pretty much another corny clichéd thriller. For a while it was a trend in Hollywood movies to portray the Japanese as the bad guys. This was followed by Russians and now I suppose it's the Muslim Arabs turns to be the heartless 'bad guys' in overly patriotic American films. Riddened with clichés, overdone shaky camera which is supposed to be effective, over-the-top high tech, excessive overblown stunts, heavily intrusive suspense music and one ridiculous twist after the other is what forms 'Vantage Point'. The reason why I was excited about this film was because I had seen, what looked like appealing clips and an interesting cast. However, none of the actors get enough scope to perform. Their roles are clichéd to say the least and unidimensional. The cast includes: that includes Sigourney Weaver (the only one who does not annoy), Forest Whitaker (dude, you just won an Oscar and this is what you come up with next?), Matthew Fox (if you're gonna be picky about movies at least pick something worthwhile), Dennis Quaid (how many times do we have to see a way-passed-middle-aged man play the action hero who saves the world?), Said Taghmaoui (just look how impartial the filmmakers are that they cast an Arab to play a terrorist leader!), Eduardo Noriega (as the Spanish police who had no clue before it was too late), Ayelet Zurer (a hot she-terrorist who's obviously there for eye-candy), Zoe Saldana (the annoying reporter for whom we're supposed to feel sorry because of her untimely death)Edgar Ramirez (the typical innocent-guy-who's-forced-by-circumstances or else terrorists will kill his brother) and William Hurt (the American president who can do no wrong). Not surprising, the American president is this saintly man who just wants to do what's right and has everyone's best interest at heart and the terrorists are ruthless killers with no feelings but of course, as mentioned before, there's a female among them and the director has to stick to his usual clichés, so this she-terrorist looks hot and since she's a woman, she has to have some empathy which is shown when she hesitates to kill the hostage. Lucky for her, her male partner does the job. Oh and there's more: Yes, the non-Americans are shown as people who think Americans are arrogant...oh so much ridicule there is. This isn't the end. There are too many more to merely list in this comment. The thing is, I don't mind watching a fun action flick as long as it doesn't pretend to be something else and insult the viewers intelligence like this piece of crap did.

I was lucky enough to watch it during an event of a company I work for. I really enjoyed this movie, because of it's editing, wonderful actors and full packed action.

The movie tells the same story from 8 different persepectives, most of them from a character view, makes the puzzle clear till the end. Some puzzle parts can be guessed but this makes the movie so fun to watch.

Matthew fox acting could be better, but the others are convincing. Cheers to Ayelet Zorer, an Israeli actress who surprises again with her beauty and acting.

If you like thriller, action and car chases all in same movie then this movie is for you.

US President Henry Ashton (William Hurt) is in Salamanca, Spain , accompanied by his security agents (Matthew Fox and Dennis Quaid as agent newly returned from previous wounds) , for a world summit where an international treaty dealing with the fight against global terrorism will be signed and which was highly promoted by the USA . Then an unknown sniper is able to shoot him and a bomb goes off in the square and it causes panic , destruction , mass confusion and hysteria . Meanwhile , TV Executive Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver whose role was originally written as a male but filmmaker changed it to a woman because he felt the movie lacked a strong female character) is shooting the surprising deeds . The attempted assassination of the American President is told and re-told from several different perspectives , as from a tourist (in the original screenplay, the tourist was a Russian , as when Forest Whitaker auditioned for a different role, filmmaker was so impressed that he rewrote as an American tourist) or a Spanish police (Eduardo Noriega) o terrorists (Edgar Ramirez ,Saïd Taghmaoui , Ayelet Zurer) and fourth is the president himself . At the end new vantage point is shown revealing additional details, which definitively completes the flick of what really took place during the incident and who was involved in the conspiracy.

Stirring as well as exciting film packs noisy action , thrills , suspense , explosions , violence , twits and turns . Thrilling film with a peculiar edition narrated under several sight points , as various minutes are retold, emphasizing different characters' actions and gradually, we discover who's behind the script . The studio originally wanted to shoot the entire film in Salamanca, Spain, but the local government refused to close the Plaza Mayor for nearly 3 months and only the scenes filmed from the air were shot in Spain , as production was moved to Cuernavaca and Puebla, Mexico . Nevertheless , Matthew Fox, Eduardo Noriega, Forest Whitaker and director Pete Travis attended the premiere, held in Salamanca, Spain, on February 12, 2008 and City Hall declared them "Distinguished Guests". The original script set the story in Madrid, but the producers wanted a more "exotic" location. The fact is revealed in some scenes, like the secret service guy who says they can't locate a single person among "5 or 6 million" (Madrid's population; Salamanca's is much smaller), or when the cop enters a Muslim neighborhood during the foot chase , as Madrid has one, but Salamanca doesn't . Very good production design by Brigitte Boch , when shooting was moved to Mexico, the production design team built a replica of Salamanca's Plaza Mayor, which is slightly smaller than the original . There happens an impressive explosion on the Plaza , it was filmed by fifteen different cameras under direction of excellent photographer Amir Mokri who makes a colorful and evocative cinematography . Moving and adequate Original Music by Atli Örvarsson .

The motion picture was compellingly directed by Pete Travis . He is a director and writer, known for Dredd (2012) , Omagh (2004) , End game (2008) , TV Henry VIII (2003) and Falcón (TV Series) 2012 , set in Sevilla , Spain . The precocious technical mastery displayed by Peter Travis in ¨Vantage Point¨ is magnificent and he delivers narrative fluidity , being helped by a splendid editor , Stuart Baird , both of whom carry out a complex story paced from multiple viewpoints . Rating : 7 . Interesting action film and it will appeal to thriller fans .

As the Bourne series raises the bar for action films, and audiences balk at two-plus hour runtimes, the filmmakers of Vantage Point seem like they are trying to bring a fresh, new, unconventional take on the action/thriller genre. Though it may annoy some people, I felt the new take turns Vantage Point into a taut terrorist thriller.

The new take or approach is jumping right into the moment (everything is already planned out, people and weapons in place, etc.) of the action and then telling it from eight different points of view. This is where some people may be mildly irritated because after you see one point of view everything is suddenly rewound and shown from the next person's point of view (this is done six times) before they all converge into a thrilling finale filled with one massive adrenaline-fuelled car/chase sequence.

Because of the complex twists and turns of the plot and characters I will be brief, very brief actually, on the plot. It starts with a TV network covering a large gathering of leaders from all over the world (including the President of the United States) who have come together to form an alliance against the war on terror. At the beginning of this meeting the US president is assassinated as he takes the stage, and it begins replaying the assassination through all the different points of view. The editing must be commended in this film as it blends all the points of views so sophisticatedly you cannot help being engrossed, and the star-studded cast includes Dennis Quaid, Mathew Fox, Forest Whitaker, William Hurt, and Sigourney Weaver simply adds to everything.

In the theater I was watching some people called out their annoyance of "again?!" on the fifth rewind, which I find amusing as the filmmakers are simply trying to come up with something new in these sequel-ridden times. And probably as those same people say Hollywood is "out of ideas" they get angry when it tries something "different" and would rather go spend their money on Spider-man 8.

I felt Vantage Point was an intelligent thriller, and yes it had its' share of implausible plot points, but these were minor as the new technique makes you feel like you have an all-seeing surveillance system. I kind of felt like I was putting a puzzle together, piece by piece, and as you see a new point of view it adds more to the story and just when you think you have it figured out it changes again.

What can I say? This film is a gimmick film that relates the same event through the eyes of eight different characters that each hold a piece of the puzzle. The film stops and rewinds back to 20 minutes before the event for each character. It gets a little annoying because each time it stops, the audience is left on a cliffhanger which carries the film's tension into the next character.

As for what the film promises, it promises a good puzzle, suspense and intense action. It delivers on all accounts. This plot has twists and turns and is completely logical. Half way through this movie, if you think you got it all figured out, you haven't got a clue.

The action is fairly balanced through out the film and keeps the film moving. The car chase in this film is one of the better ones I have seen in a long long time. It had some shots in it that I think were a small homage of the original The Italian Job (1969) car chase scene.

Even though I personally thought that some of the characters were paper thin, many of the actors gave strong performances that made the characters believable. Forest Whitaker was the best. I had a little problem with Dennis Quaid's character, Secret Service Agent Thomas Barnes, starting out as the thinnest of all the characters but he grows in the film. Of course, Edgar Ramirez, Saïd Taghmaoui, and Eduardo Noriega were right on and make the film (but not as much as Whitaker).

The premise of this film makes a refreshing change from the ordinary style of mainstream movies.