Bring on the pre-quel!

Rating: Null/10 (22 November 2004)

I was heavily anticipating the opening of this movie, as was my 15 year old and 10 year old sons. We weren't disappointed!
I was surprised at the negative elitist reviews, although I probably shouldn't be. Lots of comments about "pandering to the red states" (Huh?????) and that this should really go well on the "mall crowd" (So....this would be a better movie if it played downtown??????). Basically, the critics have a reverse effect on me. If they like something, that's reason enough to avoid it. If they hate it, it must be good....
Justin Bartha as the comic relief was very good. I agree that Jon Voight, Christopher Plummer and Sean Bean were all under utilized (when is Sean Bean NOT under utilized?).
This movie has a great setup for a pre-quel, focusing on how Ben (Nicholas Cage) and Ian (Sean Bean) get together in the first place and what EXACTLY did Ian do to earn his money. The movie hints that his fortune is ill-gotten, along with the FBI finding no evidence of an Ian Holm. Maybe in the deleted scenes?