Vantage Point - Movie Review

Vantage Point
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Oh, hey.
What's that?
You've already seen the trailer for Vantage Point?
Oh, okay then. So how was the movie?
Right. You only saw the trailer. So how did you like it?
No. No. That's basically it.
The trailer basically is the movie.
I feel better referring to it as the "abridged version."
Yes, there is a bit more to the movie than what you saw, but to be completely honest, it's not much. And unfortunately, Vantage Point is all about what you see.

Vantage Point is held together by the one concept the title suggests. It is the story of an assassination viewed from the perspective of eight different onlookers, with each story told separately through flashbacks.

Including the guy who plays Jack from LOST.
That guy's really into flashbacks, apparently.

While the gimmick was enough to get me interested, the problem with this story is that it's central catalyst, the assassination itself, doesn't merit the moment to being viewed numerous times over. Yes, the president gets shot, and the stage blows up, but the reasons for it never go much farther beyond a gun being fired there and a bomb being thrown here.
There really isn't a mystery to be solved. Someone shot the president and caused a big boom.

As far as the gimmick is concerned?
It basically gets dropped by the end of the movie.
After watching the same explosion eight times, it's clear that the filmmakers lost track of whose vantage point they were actually looking through.

Eventually the film just becomes one chase scene, one chase so long that it literally stops making sense within the context of all the view points we previously experienced.

I never realized humans could outrun cars. Or that Forest Whitaker can basically fly.
But apparently there's a lot I don't know.

Vatage Point, was entertaining, which means I didn't regret the dollar fifty I spent renting it. But as I said that night I drove that stolen car off a cliff, I REGRET NOTHING.
So that really doesn't mean much in this case.

Don't bother.