National Treasure: Book of Secrets Review
Posted by Jerome Cusson on 12.24.2007
See what happens when you combine a great cast and a crappy script.
Nicolas Cage...Ben Gates
Justin Bartha...Riley Poole
Diane Kruger...Abigail Chase
Jon Voight...Patrick Gates
Helen Mirren...Emily Appleton
Ed Harris...Mitch Wilkinson
Harvey Keitel...Sadusky
Bruce Greenwood ...The President
Ty Burrell... Connor
Walt Disney presents a film directed by John Turteltaub and written by Cormac Wibberley and Marianne Wibberley. Running Time: 124 minutes. Rated PG for violence and action.
The first National Treasure was a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. As absurd as it was, there was still some very good puzzles and a lot of great action. National Treasure: Book of Secrets felt not only like a rehash, but an over-baked sequel with about twelve different screenwriters and a producer simply looking to make a huge bucket of money, quality be damned.
The plot is complicated enough to explain. So let's make it quick and painless. Thomas Gates, the ancestor of Patrick and Benjamin, is being honored as a Civil War hero. This is until Mitch Wilkinson, played by Ed Harris, announces to the world that he has evidence which suggests Gates is not a hero but the man who plotted the assassination of former president Abraham Lincoln. I've seen a lot of history books, and I can tell you Thomas Gates' name was never mentioned. So now Disney is re-writing history. They really are trying to take over the world.
The entire film turns out to be the exact same formula as the first. Substitute some different anonymous henchmen, a different villain, different wise-cracking one-liners, and some new locations. Other than that, I could hold the outline for the first one (Pretend it's like the old fragmented paper like they use in these movies for fun) and just follow this sequel step-by-step. Instead of focusing on just the overall problems, let's look at some of the individual character issues.
Ed Harris' character bothered me a lot. His motivations are never made clear. One minute he's a mustache-twirling bad guy threatening the lives of everyone involved and seemingly greedy for this city of gold. The next he's saving lives and only wants to create a legacy for his own family. The writing here does a mind-numbingly awful job giving him any consistency whatsoever. Harris is an excellent actor who really deserves better.
I also wanted to mention Jon Voight and Helen Mirren, who do what they can with their relationship. They seem to be having fun and have some moments in the third act when they're in a cave that actually piqued my interest in seeing them in a different, better movie. Justin Bartha, once again playing Riley Poole, somehow got even more annoying from the end of the last film. If there was ever an occasion where an errant bullet or rock should have been geared for him, this was it.
Finally, Nicholas Cage and Diane Kruger's rather simplistic relationship needs to be examined. These two ended the last film happily ever after. Until the script for Book of Secrets calls for them to be split. No explanation is given. Hell, I forgot they were broken up about halfway in because of the poor job everyone involved gave this relationship any plausibility whatsoever. I know we're not going to get Hemingway here, but I would have been satisfied with Stephen King level writing. Sadly, we got what amounted to a six year old getting to write a story with some crayons.
The 411: Nicholas Cage's first crack at a sequel is a miserable holiday failure. There are a lot of very good actors in this film, but their efforts are wasted by a bad story and some truly wretched dialogue. Can you tell I didn't like this film? Well, I didn't. Big disappointment here.
I found the movie to be quite entertaining, but I had the same issues with the main villain. It seems they could not decide if they wanted him to be evil or sympathetic and ended up doing a mess.
Posted By: Armando Rodriguez (Registered) on December 24, 2007 at 05:02 PM
I disagree on the main villian complaint they made it clear hes in it for family who was after the gold to begin with for the confederates and at the end he wanted his families name being remembered for something good as well.
Posted By: Paul (Guest) on December 25, 2007 at 01:22 PM
Well, that's a pretty shoddy movie review if I ever read one. I'd give your ability to review a movie a 3.0. What you, like some critics forget, is the target demographic for this audience - families. Not teenage freelance 411 writers who think they've made it to the big time. It's a popcorn flick, plain and simple, and is just supposed to be light entertainment, not mind blowing theatrical amazingness. Yeah, some of the plot sucked, they botched the villain, but you could still get you money's worth out of this movie if you just went in to be entertained by a simple movie. There's tons of dramas out for the award season. Go see one of those if you need a perfect plot to make you entertained.
Posted By: Manbearpig (Guest) on December 27, 2007 at 03:44 PM
What's even sadder is I read your profile. No wonder no one will hire you to write reviews when you turn out shit ones like this. 411 should be ashamed for letting this kind of writing get posted to the main website. It just makes the site look more bush league than it really is. You can dislike the movie, just write a real review of it.
Posted By: Meanbearpig's Dog (Guest) on December 28, 2007 at 05:36 AM
