Here's my review of National Treasure: Book of Secrets, which I saw yesterday. I quite enjoyed it at points, and felt it found a good rhythm around the middle, but couldn't have been much more disappointed by the direction it took after that. I gave it a pretty low rating, which may be a tad misleading, because it's not a terrible film. I just found some of the choices it made to be completely inexplicable.
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
The formula for the first National Treasure film was an effective one: incorporate America’s sprawling history and legacy, throw in a few clever puzzles, and wow the audience with sheer spectacle in the finale. The problem with relying on spectacle is that you have to top yourself each time afterward. And though it’s quite fun at points, National Treasure: Book of Secrets is the unfortunate victim of this principle.
The story takes place a short while after the events of the first film. Benjamin Gates (Nicholas Cage) and his father Patrick Gates (Jon Voight) have been presented with evidence that their ancestor, Thomas Gates, was a co-conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. This wouldn’t sit well with any family, of course, let alone one as concerned with American history as the Gates’. Ben becomes determined to clear his family’s name, which can only be done by finding an ancient city made entirely of gold. His search will take him to Paris, Buckingham Palace, and Mounts Vernon and Rushmore.
The city of gold, of course, would be the aforementioned spectacle. The other elements in the formula are in place, as well; there are interesting bits of revisionist history and historical asides that are fun to ponder, and some of the puzzles are fairly inventive. The clues are a bit more plausible (relatively speaking) this time around and there’s plenty of irreverence to stop the audience from analyzing believability. The problem is that when the film reaches its inevitable subterranean denouement, we feel like we’ve been there before.
All the players from the first film are back; Diane Kruger as Abigail Chase, Justin Bartha as Riley Poole, and Harvey Keitel as Sadusky. Voight has a fairly expanded role this time around, and several newcomers find plenty of time on screen, as well. Helen Mirren joins the cast as Ben’s mother, Ed Harris plays the villain, and Bruce Greenwood plays the President for the second time in his career (Thirteen Days being the other).
Despite the star-studded cast expansion, Book of Secrets essentially treads water, and fails to generate any consistent sense of wonder. The lone exception comes in the form of the titular book, which has been passed down from one U.S. President to the next, and details the nation’s most clandestine secrets. Despite serving as the film’s subtitle, the book is a tease, and doesn’t really factor into the finale. A film like this only works if the audience buys into the momentousness of its discoveries. But the film cuts the legs out from under itself by tantalizing us with America’s greatest secrets, and then asking us to generate excitement for the discovery of yet another pile of treasure.
To whatever degree Book of Secrets is worth seeing is largely thanks to its straightforwardness. A chase scene in an escape from Buckingham Palace is refreshingly coherent, and the comedy is simple and widely accessible. No one can ever accuse the National Treasure films of taking themselves too seriously. When one of the major plot points involves kidnapping the President of the United States, how could they?
Ultimately, though, these occasional bright spots simply aren’t enough to offset the messy third act, which feels slapped together. Questions go unanswered, a tense standoff is resolved through sheer confusion, and there’s no real payoff. The film’s own title seems at odds with its events as to what the ultimate focus of the film is.
Of course, Ben Gates never was much more than a poor man’s Indiana Jones to begin with, and Book of Secrets is little more than a disappointing appetizer for the main course that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull figures to be. It goes through the motions and fails to up the ante; a cardinal sin for a movie which aims to awe.
The formula for the first National Treasure film was an effective one: incorporate America’s sprawling history and legacy, throw in a few clever puzzles, and wow the audience with sheer spectacle in the finale. The problem with relying on spectacle is that you have to top yourself each time afterward. And though it’s quite fun at points, National Treasure: Book of Secrets is the unfortunate victim of this principle.
The story takes place a short while after the events of the first film. Benjamin Gates (Nicholas Cage) and his father Patrick Gates (Jon Voight) have been presented with evidence that their ancestor, Thomas Gates, was a co-conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. This wouldn’t sit well with any family, of course, let alone one as concerned with American history as the Gates’. Ben becomes determined to clear his family’s name, which can only be done by finding an ancient city made entirely of gold. His search will take him to Paris, Buckingham Palace, and Mounts Vernon and Rushmore.
The city of gold, of course, would be the aforementioned spectacle. The other elements in the formula are in place, as well; there are interesting bits of revisionist history and historical asides that are fun to ponder, and some of the puzzles are fairly inventive. The clues are a bit more plausible (relatively speaking) this time around and there’s plenty of irreverence to stop the audience from analyzing believability. The problem is that when the film reaches its inevitable subterranean denouement, we feel like we’ve been there before.
All the players from the first film are back; Diane Kruger as Abigail Chase, Justin Bartha as Riley Poole, and Harvey Keitel as Sadusky. Voight has a fairly expanded role this time around, and several newcomers find plenty of time on screen, as well. Helen Mirren joins the cast as Ben’s mother, Ed Harris plays the villain, and Bruce Greenwood plays the President for the second time in his career (Thirteen Days being the other).
Despite the star-studded cast expansion, Book of Secrets essentially treads water, and fails to generate any consistent sense of wonder. The lone exception comes in the form of the titular book, which has been passed down from one U.S. President to the next, and details the nation’s most clandestine secrets. Despite serving as the film’s subtitle, the book is a tease, and doesn’t really factor into the finale. A film like this only works if the audience buys into the momentousness of its discoveries. But the film cuts the legs out from under itself by tantalizing us with America’s greatest secrets, and then asking us to generate excitement for the discovery of yet another pile of treasure.
To whatever degree Book of Secrets is worth seeing is largely thanks to its straightforwardness. A chase scene in an escape from Buckingham Palace is refreshingly coherent, and the comedy is simple and widely accessible. No one can ever accuse the National Treasure films of taking themselves too seriously. When one of the major plot points involves kidnapping the President of the United States, how could they?
Ultimately, though, these occasional bright spots simply aren’t enough to offset the messy third act, which feels slapped together. Questions go unanswered, a tense standoff is resolved through sheer confusion, and there’s no real payoff. The film’s own title seems at odds with its events as to what the ultimate focus of the film is.
Of course, Ben Gates never was much more than a poor man’s Indiana Jones to begin with, and Book of Secrets is little more than a disappointing appetizer for the main course that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull figures to be. It goes through the motions and fails to up the ante; a cardinal sin for a movie which aims to awe.