| Overall Grade: |
C |
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| Story: |
C- |
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| Acting: |
C |
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| Direction: |
C- |
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| Visuals: |
C+ |
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Treasure Still Not Very Valuable
by Eric (movies profile)
Jul 12, 2008
4
of
5 people found this review helpful
I don’t know what I expected to get out of the sequel of a film that found to be one of the most ridiculous movies ever made. But I found myself intrigued by a trailer, which promised that in one movie, a character will break into both Buckingham Palace and the White House, will have kidnapped the President, and all for the sake of discovering the truth behind the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Always one for a good kick in the head, I decide to give National Treasure: Book of Secrets a try. While I can say that this movie is incredibly busy, not sparing one moment of it’s two-hour running time to take a breath, it left me so confused that I felt stupid coming out.
World-renowned treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicholas Cage) gets the shock of a lifetime when he finds out that his great-great-grandfather could be linked with the assassination of President Lincoln, the evidence in the custody of a mysterious soldier of fortune (Ed Harris). In order to clear his ancestor’s name, Gates decides he has to find an ancient treasure that this same ancestor had supposedly died to keep out of Confederate hands. To hunt down this treasure, he enlists his old confidant (Justin Bertha) and ex-girlfriend (Diane Kruger) to help alongside his father (Jon Voight). The clues they find will lead them to Paris, London (and Buckingham Palace), back to Washington D.C (the White House) and eventually leads them to South Dakota. Along the way, they pick up Gates’ mother (Helen Mirren) because she happens to be an expert in Native American languages.
Mind if I ask a few rather silly questions. Please feel free to answer these if you can. 1) How is finding treasure going to prove without a doubt that a man is not a traitor? 2) What kind of Indian tribe would have land in both Florida and South Dakota at the same time around 1500? 3) Are there no police cars in London? 4) And Finally, what in blue blazes is on Page 47 of the President’s Secret Book? Maybe that’s a question for the next National Treasure.
This movie does have some great Jerry Bruckheimer action-sequences that are a cheap knock-off to Indiana Jones (and I hope that Spielberg and Lucas are going to show the wannabes how it is done next May). You are going to be in the moment during the movie, but once you ask one question about the structure of the movie, you find that it all falls apart: the puzzle it has created is an overextended game of Jenga where one false move brings down the house. The actors seem to have a good time. Justin Bertha has some great one-liners that are the best part of the movie. Jon Voight, Helen Mirren, and Ed Harris seem to be in the movie only for the paycheck. The group of writers that put together this exercise in silliness either honestly think they have put together a smarter movie than they have or put only enough energy into the movie to pay the bills.
I have admired director Jon Turtletaub for his sweet little romantic comedies and I really do implore him to go back to his day job. Action is not his foray, nor is this franchise. Like Gore Verbinski of the Pirates movies, he has been ensnared by Bruckheimer’s paint by the numbers movies that are all about flair at the expense of substance. While this movie is head and shoulders better than the first, it still does not hold its head above water and drowns in it’s own stupidity.
You might think I’m being harsh on a movie that is meant to be more of a ride than a thought-provoking film. But in fact, I think I’m being quite fair to it. National Treasure sets up pseudo-history lessons that combines conspiracy theories and legends and passes it as fact. It’s own arrogance is my biggest complaint. On top of that, if you compared the action of this movie with the far-superior The Bourne Ultimatum, you will see that what is missing National Treasure is the suspense of consequence. No character actually pays for making wrong decisions, which automatically corrects itself in the hero’s favor.
All in all, this isn’t a bad movie as it is a useless one. It’s not entirely exciting, thrilling, and calling it fun is negotiable. Perhaps if the movie would have made a few changes and actually tried to up the ante instead of playing it safe by giving you the same experience as before, it might have been good. But I think that when the next time a new National Treasure is found, I think I’ll keep it buried. |
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