National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Remember the Indiana Jones? With the cave, cowboy hat, and the monkey brain…etc Boy, it was a classic! Not to mention the stiff acts and the one tone voice during the movie like they’re all reading the news. And the very thing that I remember the most is the hanging bridge. Oh, they always have the hanging bridge in treasure hunting movies back then, don’t they? I love those bridges. No one could ever cross those bridges without a hitch. Something bad will always happen.

Treasure hunting was among my favorite childhood fantasies back then, which is why I decided to watch the National Treasure. I didn’t get the chance to watch the first one though, so I have no idea whether it’s a good movie or not and how close it would be to the classic ones that we used to love so much. But then I correctly assumed that there won’t be any scene showing Nicolas Cage or Diane Kruger eating any monkey brains what so ever.

There’s no question that the acting skills have long improved compare to the classic movies, although I do think that those stiff acts are part of the old movie's charm. Nicolas Cage carries his part well and the same goes for the rest of the cast. So, I won’t waste time talking about them.

What I want to talk about is the story itself. For instance, could someone please explain to me, why must you slam someone else’s ancestor publicly just to get his great great great grandson to find the treasure for you? Couldn’t you just approach him peacefully and say, “Hey, let’s find this treasure together.” After all, they way I heard it, they are treasure hunter freaks on the first place, so getting them interested won't be a hard work, right? To me, it's a lame plot to introduce the villain of when he doesn't have to be a villain, but since they need a villain in every movie, they simply threw one desperately. The result, a very confusing individual called Mitch Wilkinson played by Ed Harris. Are you following me so far?

And after watching the whole movie, I still can’t understand the fact that what does finding the buried treasure got anything to do with clearing your ancestor’s name on the first place. So, the treasure exists. That doesn't proved that your ancestor didn’t kill anyone or planned on to? I simply don’t get the logic. Just because you ancestor discovered that there was a treasure hidden somewhere doesn't mean he's not a bad guy.

I was also tickled by the choice of where the treasure was hidden. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t watched it, but let me just say this… “Are you freaking kidding me?” It was there and no one ever stumble upon it? Come on!” Maybe it’s just me, but the fact that you could get to the front door of the cave by walking on a nice build track without so much of breaking a sweat is just ridiculous. Might as well they just write that the treasure was buried on Nicolas Cage’s backyard!

Overall, I would say that this movie is petty. I’m not sure how else can I call it. It’s just what it is…Petty. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. It feels like they don’t spend that much effort in writing the story. But it was fun to watch nonetheless. The humor and the mischief while looking for clues are entertaining. Oh, and one more thing that I was disappointed about, there was no hanging bridge! How could that be?!

Anyway, for the 10 bucks that I’ve spent on National Treasure: Book of Secrets and the 2 and a half hours of my life I spent watching it, I’m giving it 2.5 stars out of 5.