This sequel to 2004’s National Treasure is like a fifth-generation carbon copy, looking just like the original, only a little shoddier. A couple of fairly entertaining action sequences are supported by scaffolding even more precarious than the barely balanced platform hidden behind Mount Rushmore where the cast find themselves in the climax. earlier, there’s a car chase through London, wherein hero Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) drives on the wrong side of the road but still escapes from the nominal villain (Ed Harris). Harris’s character is a rival historian/treasure hunter with the virtue of being ambiguous, but the liability of making hardly any sense. Neither does the rest of the movie. Rather than suspension of disbelief, suspension of all higher brain functions may be required to enjoy this written-by-a-committee sequel.
Cage is re-joined by most of part one’s cast. Love interest/document expert Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger) is separated from Gates, so he can woo her again. Friend Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) returns as the stock character of the electronics expert who can defeat the Buckingham Palace computer system in 30 seconds but can’t get a girlfriend. Jon Voigt as Ben’s dad has a bigger part than before, and Ben also has at his disposal a linguistics expert played by Helen Mirren. Ben’s role is to look at an obscure clue in Paris and realize seconds later that he needs to break into the queen’s desk in London. Somehow this will all clear Gates’s ancestor of having conspired with President Lincoln’s assassin.
This all goes by so fast you won’t have time to ponder all the implausibilities. It will test the resolve of the “it’s just a movie” crowd, but assuming that a semblance of realism is not an issue, it has very much the same fun feel as the original Treasure, and in Mirren actually has one thing that’s better. Touching on familiar bits of history without being intellectual, these popcorn sellers fill a niche for those seeking an all-ages adventure without much violence, but the first one was the real Treasure.
IMDB link
reviewed 1/17/08
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