A couple of days ago, I decided that if I wanted to watch the second part of National Treasure, I had to watch the first installment first, so I grabbed my DVD copy and gave it a go. I don’t want to compare Jerry Bruckheimer’s production with Raiders of the Lost Ark or any other adventure flick because it wouldn’t be fair for Nic Cage’s vehicle. The movie itself is fairly entertaining, direction isn’t too bad, the script isn’t very clever but it’s OK, and the performances are well, average (with the exception of Nicolas Cage who is a little better). Nevertheless, I can say the flick didn’t bore me at all and although the story isn’t innovative, it was fun when its protagonist deciphered –in an unbelievable way- any hints throughout it. I didn’t find the movie as flawed as other critics have, but that’s maybe because I haven’t watched too many good adventure movies besides the aforementioned Indiana Jones flicks.

Over two hundred years ago, the last living signer of the American Declaration of Independence was Mr. Charles Carroll. The man was dying and knew a secret regarding a treasure which was too big even for a king so he passed the word to the only person available at the moment, his driver, Thomas Gates. The problem was not even Carroll knew where the treasure was so he could only give a hint. From generation to generation, the secret was kept in the Gates family and every member of it tried to find out what the clue meant. At the present time, Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) is finally able to find what the clue was about, just to find another one leading him to the Declaration of Independence. He’s double-crossed by his former partner, Ian Howe (Sean Bean) who teams up with a bunch of Gates’ ex-gang to try to steal the document and find the treasure. Ben is left just with his faithful friend Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) and later on finds the aid of a woman working in the National Archives who’s also trying to protect the Declaration from any possible robbers, Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger).

The script is the film’s main problem. Firstly, the legend of the treasure is truly hard to believe and feels very, very adapted to the needs of the plot and to make the story a little more interesting. The characterization of Gates isn’t very good; although we get a little of his family background, he is presented as a very thin protagonist being most of the times more of a patriot –he sometimes compares himself with the very signers of the Declaration of Independence- than Mel Gibson in his movie, and is provided with a brain which seems better than Will Hunting’s. They could have used a better approach for Benjamin –he also happens to have the same name as Franklin- making him not precisely three-dimensional, but more realistic and not just appealing for a really young audience. The screenplay is not too smart but it has some funny lines spoken by Riley (most are moronic, though) like a mention of the aliens helping the Egyptians and Chinese people building the Pyramids and The Great Wall. The plot isn’t original but serves the purpose of entertaining the audience for a couple of hours. I’d watched Bruckheimer’s The Amazing Race a few times and the comparison made by many people between the cinematic and TV productions is justifiable; National Treasure is about two different parties who find clues which lead them to other clues in order to obtain a magnificent treasure.

Nicolas Cage is the main responsible for saving the film from being a disaster. He makes his character likable and although the audience can’t really care for Ben Gates or any other of the good guys –this is a Walt Disney Pictures production, the good ones can’t die- it’s always fun to watch Cage’s natural performance. He portrays Gates as a regular guy who is part of a family destined to find a treasure and doesn’t want to fail as his predecessors have. Unfortunately and as I mentioned before, the rest of the performances are just average. German chick Diane Kruger (Wicker Park) might be beautiful and have done her stunts by herself, but her acting skills are poor –at least in this film- and she makes her character nothing more than Gates’ love interest. Justin Bartha (Gigli) is possibly worse than Kruger and overacts in most of the action sequences; at least the script helped him by making his character at times funny. The rest of the cast is fine, Sean Bean (The Lord of the Rings, Equilibrium) as Ian Howe, the main bad guy who leads the second party, is OK; we aren’t really involved with his character but as this is Disney, he can’t be despitefully evil. I don’t really know how talented, serious actors like Harvey Keitel, John Voight and Christopher Plummer took part in this movie; they do their job well but feel out of place.

Direction by Jon Turteltaub is all right but he falls in the cliché of the American patriot and hero. The use of slow motion to stylize Gates even more during dramatic situations like the explosion in the storage room of a ship is the perfect example of Turteltaub’s approach to the protagonist. The middle section’s action sequences are fine and at least the director and the editing team could make the pacing of National Treasure good; the film never drags and keeps the viewer in ”uncertainty” until the end. The music is a little forced and feels like, saving the distance, the Pirates of the Caribbean’s score. It might work for kids but doesn’t help the movie at all. The stunts and visual effects are unnoticeably which proves at least the producer and director used their budget properly.

National Treasure can’t be a real bad flick because it manages to entertain the audience –which is the main purpose of an adventure movie- and even though it’s a kids’ film, it doesn’t feel too idiotic or stupid. The ending is absolutely predictable but some of the small twists the movie has are fairly good. The plot might be unoriginal and the formula copied from a TV show. Direction has nothing too fancy and the characters and relationships are forced and underdeveloped. The movie lacks inspiration and I’d only recommend it to a child or someone willing to believe any story or looking for nothing more than an easy film.

© Mauricio Kahn

Lima, Mar 2008

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