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Monday, November 9, 2009
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'Book of Secrets' not quite a 'National Treasure'
Movie Review: National Treasure: Book of Secrets
By Brett Troxler
btroxler@wbrz.com
Web Producer
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PLAY OFFICIAL TRAILER
The second installment in this family-friendly treasure hunter adventure picks up not terribly long after the conclusion of the first. Hero Ben Gates (Nicholas Cage) and girlfriend Abigail (Diane Kruger), whom he wooed in the first film, are on the outs. Riley (Justin Bartha) has written a book, yet lost his fortune to some fuzzy math and — more specifically — the IRS.
Good thing the good name of Gates is being besmirched again.
While Gates and his father (Jon Voight) are giving a lecture at a university, a man by the name of Mitch Wilkinson (Ed Harris) shows up with a long-lost page from the diary of John Wilkes Booth. It just so happens the page links Gates’ great-great-grandfather to the Abraham Lincoln assassination. Doh.
At closer examination the diary page reveals a cipher, and with that Gates and the usual suspects are off clue hunting. The plot of “Book of Secrets” follows the same template as the first in many ways. The crazy scheme to steal the Declaration of Independence in round one is topped by a plan to kidnap the president of the United States (and gain access to his Book of Secrets) in round two. The treasure of the Knights Templar in the original is replaced by the hunt for Cibola, the lost city of gold.
From France to London to Washington, D.C., to South Dakota, Gates and his crew follow clue after clue. But everything falls into place far too easily. Despite an occasional run-in with Wilkinson’s gang (what would a treasure hunt be without bad guys?) and the occasional minor speed bump thrown out by law enforcement, the hunt seems way too tidy. Even taking the film for what it is, an adventure where unbelievable things are supposed to happen, it’s still hard to become immersed in it when everything the good guys do seems to work and almost nothing they do fails.
With the good guys doing no wrong, it’s really no surprise that the bad guys aren’t doing much right. Wilkinson wants the treasure for himself, though his reasons are never quite explained. Really, the whole Mitch Wilkinson situation is convoluted. You are never given a clear indication of his motivation, and as villains go he’s pretty weak. Match those things up with Ed Harris’ unidentifiable Southern accent — sometimes you’ll swear it’s one of those bad Hollywood Louisiana accents, at others it sounds more Georgia-esque — and you have a character whose inclusion seems, well, pretty clueless.
Despite a cast chocked full of familiar faces — Harris, Helen Mirren and Bruce Greenwood join the cast — there really isn’t much to write home about on the acting front. Cage is wooden enough to give you splinters, and no one else gives the performance of their careers by a long shot. Bartha is a nice source of comic relief now and then, but he’s got nothing on the Goofy cartoon, “How to Hook up Your Home Theater,” that fronts the film.
Gates again trying to save face for the sake of family name might lend strongly to his character, but despite the implication by Wilkinson this time around it doesn’t seem as worthy of a cause. The second film’s climax doesn’t quite compare to that of the first film, either, because at the moment when you should be worried that the good guys might drown, you are instead fearful of becoming a drowning victim yourself. The difference is your death pool is a sea of bad dialog.
“National Treasure: Book of Secrets” is a lot of things. Impractical? Yes. Illogical? Absolutely. Cheesy? Sometimes. Fun? Sure, why not. Still, the second installment of the "National Treasure" franchise reeks of a film looking to rake in the money rather than worry over plot consistency or smart writing. With that in mind, Page 47 of the President’s Book of Secrets — though we don’t get a look at it — hints of yet another film in the franchise. In the meantime we can all hope the bar is set a little bit higher the third time around.
