I can only begin by telling you that National Treasure stretches more to get started than any film I can remember in recent history. First we learn that there is this great treasure the Knights Templar unearthed from the temple of King Solomon way back in God knows when, and then moved it through Europe until it was ultimately hidden somewhere in the U.S. by our nation’s Founding Fathers.
This story is told to a young Ben Gates by his father (Plummer) as the movie begins and then we quickly cut to 30 years into the future where we find Ben Gates (Cage) all grown up and traversing the Arctic Circle in search of a lost ship, thought to hold the treasure in question. Luckily enough it is only a couple inches below the snow and we have just managed to push away enough of the fluff to see it is the ship we are looking for, the ship expected to hold the treasure he has dedicated his life to.
Unfortunately we don’t find our treasure, but we do find a clue, a clue that tells us that there is a map on the back of the Declaration of Independence. Why can’t I ever find something like that?
Nevertheless, we don’t only have our target, we have our baddie as Ian Howe (Bean), the money behind Ben’s search crew suggests stealing the sacred parchment, but once Ben declines the notion he is quickly outed and all hell breaks loose. After easily figuring out how to get home from the Arctic on foot the chase begins and the search for the treasure of the Knights Templar is on.
Dodging bullets and decoding clues is the name of the game in this witless jaunt that never figured out how to get started and builds up for a disappointing ending.
Nicolas Cage gives his usual off beat performance that is occasionally over the top and for the most part blase. His “too cool for school” attitude and dull dreary eyes are quickly offset by his quirky counterpart Riley Poole played by Justin Bartha, whose primary role is to take on the task of comic relief, which quickly wears thin.
In the looks department is Diane Kruger, who also played Helen in the Warner Bros epic Troy, and your resident baddie is played by Sean Bean, who you could have also seen in Troy as Odysseus, but you may remember him more for his role as Boromir in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
As for other big name actors involved such as Harvey Keitel, Jon Voight and Christopher Plummer they are rendered pretty much worthless as they could have been filled by any other actor and are powerful in name only.
With all that said, the acting doesn’t even really matter. National Treasure would work as a Sunday afternoon TV movie but it just doesn’t work as a big budget studio tentpole, which, for Disney, makes The Incredibles that much more of an important film thanks to their terrible box-office performance throughout 2004.
Not only does this movie fail for plot reasons but the action is so boring and predictable that it doesn’t come close to satisfying the normal Jerry Bruckheimer produced fares. Short on action and high on boredom is the name of this game, plus director John Turteltaub doesn’t bring the Bruckheimer flare such directors as Tony Scott, Michael Bay and even Gore Verbinski have done in the past.
Audiences will be drawn to the Raiders of the Lost Ark feel of the trailer, but after a weekend of word-of-mouth this film should quietly fade, just as did King Arthur, the first disappointing Disney/Bruckheimer flick this year.
