The original National Treasure was one of the better movies to be released in a long-time. Creating a storyline steeped in American history is challenging enough. However, when you incorporated a treasure hunt into that storyline – and do it successfully – then you have something that will undoubtedly be profitable. Book of Secrets was good, but I don’t think it lived up to the drama and engaging storyline of the first movie.
Nicholas Cage is back as treasure hunter Ben Gates and this time around he’s looking to clear the name of an ancestor who was recently accused of helping to plan the Lincoln Assassination. This is certainly an interesting storyline which is only helped by adding larger parts for his father Patrick Gates, played by Jon Voight, and former fling Abigail, played by Diane Kruger. The addition of Helen Mirren as Professor Emily Appleton – Ben’s Mom and Patrick’s ex-wife – was a good decision on the part of the writers. She adds a great deal to the movie and another level of complexity in the family drama that is the Gates clan.
What I didn’t like about this movie was the villain storyline. Don’t misunderstand me, though. Ed Harris played Mitch Wilkinson – a descendant of one of Lincoln’s assassins – perfectly. In fact, he played the part so well that I almost overlooked the fact that the “bad guy” part of this movie was aggravating to the larger storyline. In other words, if you watched the first movie, then you already saw a similar scenario play out: Ben looks for treasure, a bad guy is after him, good guys win in the end. It’s just so repetitive and boring that I think the movie is hurt by it in the long-run.
Although on the one hand, one has to wonder what else is possible in terms of a storyline when you’re dealing with treasure hunters. Since the movie ends with the possibility of a third movie (the folks at CinemaBlend.com report a third movie is on the way), I hope that the writing for the next installment of this franchise is more creative.
In the end, though, this is still a fun movie to watch and absolutely worthy of a fan’s DVD collection. If you’re not into buying the DVDs, then I would recommend renting this one for a boring night during the week. It’s a fun movie with lots of “intelligence puzzles” scattered throughout. However, if you’re looking for something that is a step-up from the first movie, then you may have to wait until the third installment is released.
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