Great Fun for What It's Worth

Rating: 7/10 (12 May 2008)

Just as the first "National Treasure", if you are able to escape reality and simply enjoy the adventure for what its worth, then "National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets" should provide a family's worth of entertainment. There are a couple of parts of the film that fell like you are playing a pretty awesome action-packed video game in a world where the cops never catch you and the treasure holders of the past were able to rig traps of preposterous proportions. Having said that, however, the film does carry a strong plot surrounding both the search for the lost city of Cebola, ancient City of Gold, and in the process, attempt to clear the legacy of Bejamin Gates' (Nicolas Cage) great-grandfather and Patrick Gates' (Jon Voight) grandfather.
As a sub-plot, tensions are high between both Benjamin and Abigail (Diane Kruger) whose marriage has apparently come apart between the first film and this, and Patrick and Professor Emily Appleton (Helen Mirren), Benjamin's mother and Patrick's work-a-holic ex-wife. Justin Bartha delivers the best performance as Riley Poole, just as he did in the first. While the dialogue and development of all of the characters in the film is somewhat on par with the first, it was the character of Mitch Wilkenson (Ed Harris) that may keep you sour. It was as if the writers of this movie felt that there needed to be a quintessential 'bad guy' who was after Benjamin. Wilkenson is portrayed as an evil mastermind out to use Ben for his unique puzzle-breaking skills to eventually capture the same treasure sought after by Ben, sound familiar? Overall, the film does leave the viewer entertained, however, and that can be the only true determination as to the quality of an action-adventure film produced by Disney.