The Fun Of The Original Turns To Silliness In The Sequel

Rating: 5/10 (22 December 2008)

The original "National Treasure" was fast-paced and fun all the way through. Like many sequels, "Book of Secrets" lost some of the magic that deemed it worthy to spawn a sequel in the first place. This film wasn't as well paced as the original (actually, by the time the lost city was finally found my attention had wandered so many times that I had trouble piecing together the steps that had brought them there!) The basic plot, revolving around the search for this lost city of gold that led from Washington to France to England to South Dakota, wasn't as compelling as the original, either, and to be honest fell on what I considered to be the extremely silly side, the chief silliness being perhaps the account of Gates kidnapping the president to have him help in the treasure hunt.
As for the performances, Nicolas Cage was once again fine as the head treasure hunter Ben Gates, but some of the spark between him and Diane Kruger (again playing Abigail) seemed missing.Justin Bartha added comic relief as Ben's sidekick Riley, as did Jon Voigt as his dad. Helen Mirren and Ed Harris rounded out the cast, as Ben's mom and chief nemesis respectively, and handled their parts well enough.
Basically, I'd characterize this as an average movie with some good action scenes saddled with a plot of limited substance. 5/10