National Treasure is a wildly fun movie, but
not a good one. With a story that ridiculously
references the historical founding of the United States
as commonplace, in order to enrich its fictional plot,
its main fault is that it delves too far into downright
silliness. Yes, this does make for a solid entertainment
value, but for any viewer of considerable intelligence,
it will serve as a nagging burden. Characters swing from
the doors of fast-moving trucks, trick each other to
believing the ludicrous, and perform insurmountable
physical tasks. I found all of this to be jolly, when
watching it, but the sheer lackadaisicalness of
National Treasure is bound to be forgotten by all.
The film is a Jerry
Bruckheimer production, and, like its predecessors,
places heavy emphasis on long action sequences.
Thankfully, Bruckheimer has found a competent director,
named John Turtletaub, for this movie, who is the polar
opposite of his usual partners, Michael Bay and Joel
Schumacher. Turtletaub, at the very least, brings style
to the clichés of the goofy, but enthralling action
sequences, allowing them to stay interesting, while
preposterous. In the hands of an entirely careless
director, National Treasure could’ve been
endlessly boring.
Nicolas Cage plays Ben Gates,
the youngest descendant in his family, whose members
have dedicated their lives to finding a long, lost
treasure that was buried in America’s past by the
Founding Fathers. After he is betrayed by his greedy,
long-time partner, Ian Howe (Sean Bean), in his quest to
find the treasure, Ben finds himself in a huge dilemma.
Both men discovered that the key to solving the mystery
of the location the riches is located is on the back of
the Declaration of Independence, and have to outsmart
each other, in attempts to steal the highly protected
document. Along the way, National Archivist Abigail
Chase (Diane Kruger), who once believed that the
treasure was not real, is forced into teaming up with
Ben.
In addition to the outrageous
material in National Treasure, there is that of
nonsensicality. How Ben is financially able to devote
himself to finding this treasure is beyond me. Not only
does he feed and house himself without a regular
day-job, but also funds huge missions to excavate clues,
in hopes of finding what he is looking for. Unclear
background information, such as this, does not so much
detract from the movie’s entertainment value so much as
it makes it feel artificial. Perhaps my biggest gripe
with National Treasure is that the characters,
while sympathetic, do not feel real. Instead of
personally responding to the material, I simply felt as
though I was watching “Action Movie Z”, hot off of
Hollywood’s assembly-line. There is, no doubt, some
flair in National Treasure, but it often drowns
in an abundance of average material.
Even with National Treasure’s
many shortcomings, however, I have decided to recommend
it. As stupid as it is, make no mistake, I smiled
through its entire duration (aside from during the
strangely abominable first twenty minutes, that is). If
I was solely grading on the basis of bottom-barrel
entertainment-value and the attractiveness of the
leading actress, National Treasure would merit
four-buckets. Unfortunately for the filmmakers, the
creativity of movies usually sways my opinion to a
certain degree, and, in that area, this one is bogged
down by its own ambitions. In attempts to create a fresh
piece of fiction, writers Jim Kouf, Cormac Wibberley,
and Marianne Wibberley invented themselves into a dark,
deep hole. Their material is interesting, but because of
its artistic and historical limitations, it is forced to
embrace blank conventions that are often very
constraining for it. Even so, and extremely hesitantly,
I’ll take adventurous, family-friendly entertainment
where I can get it.
-Danny, Bucket Reviews (11.23.2004)
