Review of Vantage Point (2008) by Lee B — 16 Sep 2010

This is a concept movie, and that concept is both unnecessary and very necessary. I know that makes no sense, but here?s my best explanation. This movie is about all the different accounts of the same incident. And it is just too distracting when you are trying to piece it all together. And really, those pieces are just to build up a puzzle. If you just took it as the fact that each of these people is thrown into the unknown would have probably good enough if the writing was cleaner and they wanted that direction. But here is why it is necessary. If you think about this movie as a linear piece, the entire action of the movie probably takes about 25 minutes in real time. That is shorter than most sitcoms. So the writers needed to stretch it somehow. Or they could have just cleaned up the actual chase and investigation.

But that?s the rub. They probably could have invested a lot more in the writing and make this a great action movie. Because the action in this movie is great. If they decided to take the route that some many movies like Taken and A-Team (haven?t seen The Expendables yet) took and just made a mindless action movie. This is a good production and well crafted for what they were working with. It probably just needed more work on the brainstorming side.