Joyous boys own yarn full of the serial silliness of movies past and present.

Rating: 8/10 (31 December 2012)

Hee, for a family adventure film that made a profit of over $247 million at the worldwide box office, you would think there would be more people standing up for the film and its subsequent sequel. Yet admitting to enjoying National Treasure is frowned upon, like it was some fluke of a hit and anyone bold enough to stick up for it clearly has taken leave of their respective senses.
National Treasure is what it is in simplistic terms, a rollicking good adventure yarn, one that is ripe with outlandish writing and implausibilities a go go, in other words fun fun FUN! Detractors can call it an Indiana Jones rip off all they like, but really what is wrong with that formula being followed anyway? Is it not allowed to be copied? Bizarre given that the Indy films owe their very being to a handful of action adventure films of old. While comparisons to The Da Vinci Code are fair if out of context given the target audience for the Tom Hanks starrer.
Plot basically finds Nick Cage as Benjamin Gates, a historian and cryptologist who is searching for some lost treasure once protected by the Knights Templar. Hired by Ian Howe (Sean Bean), Gates finds an important clue but is betrayed by Howe and his cronies and has to continue his search with Howe hot on his tail. Along for the ride with Gates are National Archives expert Dr. Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger) and computer whizz kid Riley Poole (Justin Bartha). Story lurches from one clue to another, with much crash banging and escapades aplenty, while Harvey Keitel's cop enters the fray when the film's MacGuffin is stolen.
National Treasure is streamlined for the family audience, yes some of the cryptic wafflings will go over youngsters heads, and for sure it helps to have a modicum of American history knowledge, yet this is still a picture the whole family can enjoy whilst sitting in the same room together. It obviously lacks an end of the world peril, or the breakdown of religious society, but the action does flow and drama is not in short supply (the Declaration of Independence scenes are expertly constructed). The cast, with the exception of the bland Kruger, attack the material with the requisite tongue in cheek gusto, particularly Cage who make geeks cool and Bartha with astute comic ability, and viewing it in High Definition reveals some beautiful colour photography by Caleb Deschanael.
Credulity is stretched, it goes over the top and malarkey often reigns supreme, but the makers aren't making a cerebral thriller. They achieve exactly what they set out to do, to make a fun action mystery adventure film that doffs its cap to films of previous years. Roll on to the sequel, I hope it's equally as fun and outlandish... 7.5/10