We saw Vantage Point movie tonight

Well I read that last weekend when Vantage Point opened, it was the box office sales leader. Our trip to Colorado and subsequent flu bugs kept us out of the cineplex until tonight so we went to see what all the buzz is about.

In some ways, this is a pretty good thriller with terrorist plots to kill the US President in front of tv cameras and there are explosions, firearms and a wild car chase through the streets of a Spanish city in the midst of a panic. There's a Secret Service agent back on the president's detail after being shot in the line of duty that now needs to prove to himself that he's ready to be on duty. There are crosses and double-crosses and the story itself is fast paced and smart.

Except- for that vantage point part of the movie... That I didn't like so much. Basically, you see the same opening scene of a plaza filled with people watching the president arrive, be greeted and then shot, before explosions begin causing chaos, over and over again; 6 times in all, each time from the viewpoint of a different character in the story. The repetion is confusing and doesn't really add to the telling of the story. Instead, its a movie-making technique that gives the movie its title and a different method of story telling but I didn't love it and I was glad when the story got past the first portion of the tale so that the remainder of the story could be played out.

So there are some pretty good parts played by Dennis Quaid as the Secret Service agent determined to prove his readiness for duty and Forrest Whitacre as a tourist who is determined to videotape what turns out to be the most exciting day in his life. I just didn't love the repetitive opening scene. I think there could have been a better way to show those multiple vantage points without making me dizzy from the repeated scenes.