The first National Treasure movie came out of nowhere and rather stole the Da Vinci Code’s thunder by weaving a tale of masonic conspiracies into a fun treasure hunt.
This sequel - Book of Secrets, follows a similar template - this time crafting a conspiracy around an American Civil War confederate plot to discover the City of Gold in order to finance their efforts to secure victory. In this treasure hunt, Cage’s character is not only in pursuit of unimaginable treasure but also seeking to clear his Great Grandfather’s name as Thomas Gates has been smeared as a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Presidents play a big part in this film) by Ed Harris’ antiquities collector whose motives for doing so are not yet clear.
The annoying sidekick Riley returns, not quite so annoying this time round, as do Gate’s girlfriend played by Diane Kruger and Jon Voight as his Dad. As with the rule of sequels - (same + more) - Gate’s Mother comes along for the ride (Helen Mirren) as she is needed both to decode an ancient Incan inscription and as a hostage for Ed Harris who, it seems, wants his hands on the treasure.
It’s the equal of the first film for the most part - the action scenes are much crisper (even the oldies in Voight and Mirren get to do some action stuff!), and the clues mostly make sense - with the involvement of the US President and the final reveal all following the same logic. A sequel is also nicely set-up and, in a refreshing twist - we don’t endure a bloated, pointless ‘2nd’ film which is, in essence, an indulgent set-up for a final film a la The Matrix and Pirates of The Caribbean.
Loses some minor points for some lazy stereotypes when Gate’s hunt for clues takes him to Paris and London (’Gor Blimey’). And, with the cast being bigger this time round, there is not a lot of good lines for the supporting characters who simply are there, at times, to help solve clues and push the plot/hunt along - some scenes do lack a little drama. Oh, and I can’t not mention the hairpiece poor Cage is saddled with - it nearly comes a cropper in a few of the action scenes. Guess Hollywood can accept having older actors and bad guys who are receding / thin haired / bald but not their leading men!
I’m a big kid at heart and love adventure films - particularly treasure hunts so this hit the spot nicely. If you have trouble suspending disbelief and/or hate lack of character development (there is none) this will likely do little for your pallette, however for us ‘big kids’ it’s a lot of fun.
Are they attempting to rip off Indiana Jones with this? I haven’t seen these two films but seeing the posters one was reminded of the Harrison Ford movies to no short degree. I kind of like adventure films too but I don’t like Nicholas Cage in his Action Man mode so will probably give these a miss.
paulwjm
February 12th, 2008
Not really - Cage’s character is more historian than archaeology Professor, and not as gung-ho as Ford’s Dr Jones. The advertising was drawing on the Indy films as similar, but in essence these are more a dash Ocean’s Eleven, hint of Indy, dash of the Da Vinci Code.
Cage is fun in these films, lots of his mannerisms, facial expressions and off-kilter laughs - he’s at least enjoying himself. It’s the most I’ve enjoyed him since Face/Off. He doesn’t really do any fighting - the odd scuffle - most of his character’s involvement is working out clues and being rather clever.
It obviously isn’t as much a stretch for Cage as working with the Coen’s or Lynch but he’s still good value.
gizmo
February 12th, 2008
Mmm, I suppose it does sound kind of interesting. I may give it some consideration (though there are one or two things I think I’d see before this).
paulwjm
February 13th, 2008