With an impressive line-up of stars including Dennis Quaid, Sigourney Weaver, Forrest Whittaker and William Hurt suggesting a sure fire hit, can the film hit the mark?

Quaid plays Thomas Barnes: a Secret Service agent assigned to protect the President (Hurt) during a visit to Spain to sign a peace treaty to end terrorism.
But when the President is shot at, only the separate vantage points of five very different people may help identify the terrorists.

Rather than the 'Rashômon' style of telling the story from different perspectives helping to maintain interest, the film is too repetitive to really get to grips with the individuals and get the most from their own separate stories.

Instead it comes across as an attempt to use a novel device to bring a relatively run of the mill action-mystery to the screen (complete with foreign terrorist, explosions, and a predictable twist).

To then throw in awkward "rewind" moments just when the film starts to gain momentum where the viewer is thrown back to the same 12 o'clock starting point prior to the assassination, groans of 'not again' are more likely to be heard rather than gasps of intrigue.

What could have been a 45 minute condensed story of a terrorist plot that would be right at home in an episode of 24, is instead a drawn out humdrum flick with few disclosures to warrant this style of story-telling and even fewer surprises.

One aspect of Vantage Point that does impress is the token car chase.
With shakey cams and immersive stunts that ably balance urgency with drama, a Vauxhall Corsa barraging through the (supposedly) Spanish streets has never looked so cool.

Though not quite up to the standard of Bullitt or Ronin, it is certainly a shake up to the relatively stagnant mid-section of the film.
Had Travis been more imaginative and less clichéd with his use of viewpoint narratives, Vantage Point could have been a positive addition to the genre.

Instead it is merely a repetitive, dumbed-down offering that doesn't give the audience nearly enough credit.

6/10 – A clever concept poorly used results in a very average whodunnit.