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 "National Treasure" Chris' Review: It's about time we got around to watching a good action movie! National Treasure is part The DaVinci Code part Indiana Jones and is just a pleasure to watch. Now before anyone goes throwing out the obvious (Like how could the Free Masons, a secular fraternity, and the Knights of Templar, a wholly Christian organization, be considered the same group?) this is an action/adventure story... not a historical lesson. If all the "facts" in the movie were true, then it would be a historical and momentous PBS special and not a blockbuster starring Nicholas Cage. So all you eggheads out there, swallow your frickin' Encyclopedia Britannica and just enjoy the movie, ok? That being said, there still are quite a few actual facts in the movie... all made out to be clues to this 200 year old mystery. They're what make the movie enjoyable. You have a rapid succession of clues thrown at your head and Ben Gates (Nicholas Cage) is there to file them all into order and solve the puzzle before you can even understand what they're talking about. They also throw in a historically-clueless comic-relief geek, Riley Poole (Justin Bartha), just so the audience won't feel like complete idiots. Even though this has the look of a blockbuster action movie, there aren't too many huge effects. One half hearted explosion, a car chase, a roof-top chase... but for the most part, the movie focuses on the mystery and solving the clues. More of a thinking-man's shoot 'em-up. I've never really bought Nicholas Cage as an action hero. With movies like Con-Air and The Rock (both also Bruckheimer films, by the way) I just thought of him as an ill fit. In National Treasure, Cage comes off, first as a big geek.... secondly as a man of action. Taking cues from Indiana Jones, but a step further in the geekiness department. I can buy Cage as a historian who has to rise to action to safeguard a secret. I can buy him as a geek who is out of his element. I don't know... maybe that's saying something about his general acting style. Whatever it is, it works for me. Justin Bartha has, what I consider, an excellent sense of comedic timing. He really works all the one-liners he's given. Some minor moments of over-acting (ie. The moment when they find the treasure and he's sobbing over the discovery of exiting stairs) are overshadowed by some very fun dialogue moments. I'm not saying that the dialogue was great. Actually it was kind of stiff. It had it's moments, but like the book that everyone is comparing it to (The DaVinci Code), it is dry, halting, and logical to the point of forsaking prose. Again, what saves both the book and the movie is the evenly timed execution of mystery solving and the discoveries of clues within historical facts or symbols. It's like making learning fun. I only wish that more of the movie could have been educational. I'd love to learn more about our nation's history and have it be in this kind of fun and exciting format. Unfortunately, I had a hard time telling fact from fiction because there were a few moments where I realized that the writers were making things up or not checking their facts too well. I was very disappointed with the hackneyed attempt at a romance between Ben Gates and Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger). It wasn't needed, it felt forced, and the actors really had no on-screen chemistry. While I'm at it... I'm going to blame that lack of chemistry on Diane Kruger. It's obvious she got the part because of a pretty face. I was hoping for more of a performance since she was playing "Danger Girl's" namesake... but I found her lacking. I really don't have much insight into this movie... generally it's pretty straight forward, no excess thinking involved, as with most action movies. Still, it was very fun to watch and I highly recommend it for an afternoon on the couch with a bucket of popcorn. 6 thumbs up. I hope to have this one to add to my Bruckheimer collection. Just because it's brainless, doesn't mean it isn't fun to watch.   Jim's Review: BackHome - Info - Reviews - Map - Message Board - Photo Album |
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