Book of Secrets
Consider this my review for National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
I know, I know. This is really late. I saw the movie the first day it ran, but am doing a review on it’s last weeks. But let me satisfy my own geekiness and let this pass. 
(Besides, it’s still showing in 2 cinemas at Gateway, so I am still relatively up with the times.)
And also, while writing this entry I realised I didn’t do any review for the first movie. *gasps* That is not right.
So let me remedy that by doing a not-so-side-by-side comparative review. And yes, there may be spoilers ahead so read at your own risk.
For the record, I loved National Treasure, the first. It has it’s B-movie qualities, but I fell in love with it. I wouldn’t have it any other way. And yes, in hindsight, it was definitely better than that other movie that it was supposed to be, code cracking and all that jazz . And let it be said that yes, I was disappointed with that movie. But I digress.
One of the reasons I fell in love with the movie is that it was FUN! Notice how I emphasised the word with bold uppercase letters coupled with an exclamation point? Because that is one element in a supposedly adventure movie I initially look for. FUN!
Nevermind Nicolas Cage love affair with wigs, some ashen acting at some points and overused clichés, it was FUN!
Now for the not-so-side-by-side comparative review (which contains spoilers!!!)
The Plot
100 points to anyone who guesses right on why I posted this picture. Only 10 points to anyone who thinks it’s because of the MacBook love.1
Our hero, Benjamin Franklin Gates, is from a family of treasure keepers who are very patriotic but are socially misunderstood. In the first movie we are dragged deep into this misunderstanding added on with family problems and failed partnerships. Now I love code-cracking adventures, I basically grew up with “Murder, She Wrote” and “Diagnosis Murder” and…
What do you say? Those aren’t adventure shows? Those are murder mysteries? But they still crack some code right?
…
Anyway, back to the topic at hand.
I love the element of code cracking in this movie. And using the theme of America’s national history, ingenius! National Treasure people! By the second movie though, it somehow lacked something. Somehow they have a lot of ideas, but they weren’t able to project it right. I am no movie so I cannot really specify what it could be. Sure they went to France and England this time (and what happened to the Vatican which was initially mentioned in early trailers?), but I thought: That’s it? Those are the puzzles? I guess they ran out of all the puzzling out of place historical items and just puzzled over historic figures that weren’t there?
But it was fun nonetheless. Oh, pardon me: FUN!
The action scenes, Riley’s geeky remarks, and have I mentioned action scenes? Yes. I love those in both movies.
The Villains
Every adventure needs an antagonist. We got Boromir Sean Bean for the first one, and we got Ed Harris for the second. I was able to understand the motivation behind Bean’s character– doing it for the money. Very two-dimensional, but at least you actually know what he really, really wants and what his motivation is.
For Ed Harris character though, I was a bit underwhelmed. Okay so he wanted honour for his family name as well, but it still somehow confused me. Why is he trying to bring honor for his family in the first place? Which was his ancestor from the opening cut scene anyway? The killer? The killer’s accomplice? To clean their name? Is he from anyone not from the opening cut scene?
And his demise? That’s it?!? When the whole Gates family came back for the treasure, surely they might have still seen him still alive? No? But they came back as soon as they were able. And the trap surely isn’t foolproof. It could give way!
I felt short-changed on that part. 
Regardless of these negative parts, I still loved both movies. And yes, the saying that “the first one is still the best” holds true for this one. I watched the first movie again the week after. All things considered, I enjoyed it and had FUN!
- I should admit that I did squee when I saw the notebook. ↩
