Vantage Point

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Vantage Point is the worst output I have seen with easily the biggest ambitions to conceal it's improbable clumsiness with. Pete Travis's amazingly hideous movie follows Barry Levy's perplexedly shallow videogame-cinematic short, YET! There is a: CATCH! You will have the exquisite chance to see this particular videogame-sequence from eight different angles, offered through the respective perspectives - sorry about this - of eight comic book figures. Sounds interesting? Yeees? Girls and boys, I feel for you intensely. Sadly I have to recommend never mind if it does, as there is a slight requirement a minor story, even an ingame cinematic should live up to. Nothing THAT major, really - yet a short story of any kind whatsoever at least supposed to aspire for a certain degree of inventiveness, let alone freshness, Your Angry God Forbid, originality, wouldn't you agree?

Vantage Point though chooses to rely on an entirely different formula. The effort gives you a pile of You Thought That Quite Correctly My Friend and gives you a rather massive variant of it. Now, what do we have if we got to see a Huge Pile of Do We Think Of The Same Thing Here from EIGHT! different angles? Trust me, the results are staggeringly impotent, even worse/better: - take your pick - the movie features Lost Star Matthew Fox, whom I do NOT consider a mediocre actor. I consider Matthew Fox to be THE mediocre actor, and I do so because I am an immensely nice person in case you ever wondered. I am a fan of Lost by the way, yet this has absolutely nothing to do with how mediocre of an actor I consider Matthew Fox to be, which I - on rigorous, scientific bases, mind you - do. I invite you for a pleasant laugh herein about this recent insult Vantage Point that would look almost-acceptable as an in-game cinematic for a tactical FPS shooter, - because you can usually skip those sequences thank you come again - but... a cinema experience?? Oh, duuude!

Even worse: great actors Sigourney Weaver and Holt McCallany have been sadly tricked to take part in this amazingly surficial output. How superior McCallany to Matthew Fox as an actor is, one might ask. This much, I think:

Holt McCallany > Matthew Fox

Still, Matthew Fox goes away with the key role, I think he might actually believe that he has Talent! In sober reality though, he seems to have no Talent neither awareness recognizing that taking a focal role in a garbage such as Vantage Point is a fatal mistake that probably - and, frankly: hopefully! - will solidify him as the archetype of the B-performer that he: IS. A B-performer, which he is slightly defendable as, but do not overrate Matthew Fox, please: granted you are persistent enough, then I am pretty sure you can find a B-actor with the talents and abilities of Matthew Fox behind every single bush you encounter. His role in Lost solidified him as a notable B-molester of television screen, that's all, even earned him some extra chances to shine - chances he usually wastes though to deliver hilarious, unintentional results of humorous awkwardness. When Matthex Fox gives you his emotionally-hurt-figure: that is surely B-terror Par Excellence, and let me tell you this: Matthew Fox usually gives you this emotionally hurt character to gain some attention, as he is masterfully sucky at giving anything else.

What I mean is this: I'd have no problem laughing my ass off when confronting the Angry Matthew Fox, but, OH!, the Deeply Hurt Matthew Fox seems to be in such a desperate need of a helping hand and an understanding pair of eyes that you truly have no conscience to laugh at him. At least not loudly. Bah! A terrible actor, to be honest. On pair with Bill Pullman, other worst I had chance to see to this day.

So, actually it is quite fruity that he took a focal role in this here hideous movie Vantage Point. Let's make evident that he is a bad actor, at best: THE mediocre actor. Revealing a face in this movie is dicey business, great actors have exhibited this suspicion quite soberly, therefore they seem eager to abruptly vanish from the flick as soon as possible. While Holt McCallany has but a little cameo to render his presence almost unnoticeable, Sigourney Weaver needs a massive ten minutes to escape from the canvas. Poor, good lady! Now I am TRULY not sure which Planet I do post it to.

A brief question to start this out: how many movies/videogames/comics have you seen or read with this particular premise to them:

Focal representatives of different nations are preparing to take part on a summit which is organized to declare a mutual rejection of terror, and to form beneficiary compromises with each other. Little if any they do know that the Emperor's Battlefleet ha... I mean that there are terrorists present in the vicinity, and they have plans to unleash an ambush on the event!!

Bah. There are countless narrative inputs present already to rely on this exact same textbook concept, latest I have seen it was in the videogame Ghost Reckon Advanced Warfighter II, though the creators were embarrassed enough to rely on such a trite direction that they presented but one level with this narrative support. Barry Levy finds it refreshing and superintegral though, so he does HELLUVA' nice job destructing it by:

Za Mad Skillz, Brada'!

The concept is this: summit starts, everyone is happy. The President of the United States then gets FILMED! and even SHOT!, never do think that fictional terror has no space to compromise consensus further on, though! A bomb explodes and people and stuff go like: vhoaaaaaaaaaa!

From that point on the main attraction of Vantage Point is about to unleashed on you, presenting the 15 or so minutes prior the ambush from eight points of views. A highly violated buildup, and here is why: as you will see the story has the not particularly convincing dose of the definite 0 invention factor and the complete absence of desire to commit such deeds in it, therefore it attempts to substitute this massive deficit via showing around it's weakness proudly from eight different perspectives. The focal problem is that no character of the movie has any chance whatsoever to develop, badly drawn comic figures you see to present trite vibes about a series of events hastily, lazily realized and executed.

Almost the entire film plays out in two hotel rooms and an arena which the summit takes place in, but you got to see real masses and OH! so likeable characters! There are two scenes included to account a friendly, big black guy with camera and a cute little Latina girl with corresponding mother, these happy trio approached by a similarly friendly Arabian man to share a moment of mutual joy and happiness, all this documented by a cheerful Japanese dude on the broadcast team. Well, I AM truly at the verge of sighing up helplessly filled of tender emotions of supersweet qualities - yet I have to voice my immense un-satisfaction as a person in wheelchair certainly should have been included to call it a politically correct scene!



Just Another Day ON The Office.

Now where was we? Ah yes, the bomb just exploded. I'd give this kidney back, have my own ones, thank you very much. Bomb exploded, and with it: the concept of the entire flick flew away, Good Bye, Blue Sky. A nice point of intersection between the individual scenes to present the different points of views is their shared incapacity to keep you particularly interested, mainly due to the hinted shallowness of the characters, let alone the actual happenings they take part in. Let me offer you some glimpses of the attractions Vantage Point has in store for you:

Car chases!

Shootouts!

The President's exchange to a simulacrum!

I'd have a nice sum to bet if I'd have a nice sum to bet that you never heard of such things and occurrences in a movie, right? I can't help but assume that writer Barry Levy did not indeed, as he presents "his idea" of President exchange as Top Level Science-Fiction Excellence, not to mention how he kills "his own concept" later in the buildup, when the President's closest men do engage into a hilariously nonsenical discussion about how the totally integral, Real President of The United States should NOT give instructions regarding ANY matter now that his simulacrum is lying dead. God, what degree of storytelling idiocrity. If these are the men closest to the President, imagine the furthest ones to work directly to him. I mean, in Barry Levy's world.



- Pictures I take say: "Please Remove the Lid!"
- GADGETS these days!

Vantage Point reaches a - notice the skillful repetiton flaw - point which from on it absolutely needs to present a blatant surprise, this particular surprise that the film does deliver indeed has immense of a chance to catch you off-guard granted you never have been subjected to the sensation of lifting a bottle up which you thought will be full just to be revealed as empty - causing you to almost throw the object up. Well, Vantage Point offers you a surprise representing the similar weight class the aforementioned sensation reigns in, at least Levy is happy with it, I hope.

The output marks the starting point of a potential, rather unfortunate tendency of making movies based on videogame-custcene narrative concepts and "appeals", a true achievement of failing miserably at presenting action or conspiracy decency. I find this effort to lack any kind of appeal and seriousness whatsoever. I realize I might be sound like a lower portion singing a one note song of rage here, but I assure you that this is not the intention, hopefully not even the case: I was OK with the recent Die Hard movie - minus idiotic sidekick, megaminus for lack of trash talk - or even got away sort of OK with immensely action-oriented sci-fi commercial-feasts like The Island. But Vantage Point is entirely different. This is a totally impotent output which had the financial tools to conceal itself as a decently done work of stable action/conspiracy mechanics. At the end of the day though, it delivers nothing at all, yet takes and aggressively propagates liberty to communicate nothing in a senselessly loud manner. Surely, Vantage Point attempts to depict Tragedy. But it does WAY better than that. It delivers JUST that.

And now I will plagiarize masterful UFC Ring Announcer, the Veteran Voice of the Octagon, Bruce Buffer.

Khm.

Finally, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Moment You Have All Been Waiting For Has Now Became a Reality!

The Opinion Onion Gives You:

Za! Matthew! Fox! Thing!



Looksie! Matthew Fox is in some Slightly Serious Acting here! (on the Right, btw)



Looksie! Matthew Fox is in some Highly Serious Acting here! (on the Left, btw)

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