Fair sequel, weaker than the first

Rating: 5/10 (21 December 2007)

Having just seen this on its opening night, I think I can fairly predict it will be huge. That being said, though, this is a much weaker film than the first one.
There's no need for a spoiler warning here: if you've seen the previews, you've already seen pretty much the whole movie; what few surprises there might have been were ruined.
Secondly, the characters are a good bit blander this time out. Nicolas Cage's Ben Gates (in the worst haircut since Pete Rose) seems to come up with the answers to the puzzles just a little too easily to draw any drama from the revelations. Diane Kruger is back as Abigail Chase, but romantic troubles between her and Gates, introduced for no real reason, are as easily forgotten later. Ed Harris, although a fine actor, has a plain-vanilla role here as the bad guy whose motivations seem as unclear to himself as to the audience. Jon Voight reprises and enlarges his role as the father, and is joined (for no particular reason) by Helen Mirren as the mother, but neither really seems necessary to the movie. Harvey Keitel's role as FBI agent Sadusky might have been nicely enlarged into a second threat to Gates, but is instead reduced to almost nothing. And Justin Bartha is back (and great) as sidekick Riley, but the subplot of his IRS problems (and a running joke of his being mistaken for Gates) just don't work.
As for the suspension of disbelief, a little too much is asked, as brilliant insights come too quickly, gigantic stones are way too light, and the Secret Service (not to mention the Queen's palace guards) just a bit too easy to fool. If a movie is going to ask you to overlook a lot, there has to be a bigger payoff.
Several reviews have pointed out the similarity of this series to the Indiana Jones films; let's hope that like those, the third National Treasure movie (strongly hinted at the end) will make a strong comeback after this so-so sequel.
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P.S. - Kudos to the nameless Disney executive who decided to bring back the idea of the pre-movie cartoon (and Goofy is always a great choice), but with 40 years to think about it, this short was the best you could come up with?