National Treasure [PG]

Ben Gates comes from a long line of treasure hunters and, when he was a boy, his grandfather told him the tale of conspiracy and the existence of the greatest treasure known to man. Now, as an adult, Ben is out to find this great treasure, but time is against him as another man is after the treasure, eager to hock it for riches whilst Ben believes that its historic magnificence should be shared with the world. Teaming up with volunteer, Riley, and the coerced Abigail, Ben must unravel clue after clue in order to find he treasure first for the greater good. 

All this is, is the ultimate treasure hunt. A little Indiana Jones and a little Mission Impossible, National Treasure was a fun and entertaining bout of brain candy that was armed with a solid story, an interesting soundtrack, a good script, and solid characters. I quite enjoyed it. 

Ben Gates comes from a long line of treasure hunters and, when he was a boy, his grandfather told him the tale of conspiracy and the existence of the greatest treasure known to man. Now, as an adult, Ben is out to find this great treasure, but time is against him as another man is after the treasure, eager to hock it for riches whilst Ben believes that its historic magnificence should be shared with the world. Teaming up with volunteer, Riley, and the coerced Abigail, Ben must unravel clue after clue in order to find he treasure first for the greater good. 

There’s not really a lot of detail you can go into about this movie. The plot is good: solid and open to comic, romantic, and adventuresome interpretation, and it really did seem to mix Mission Impossible and Indiana Jones: at the beginning there is this modern, suave, and spy-like plot going on to steal the Declaration of Independence and then, when we get the clue we’re after, it snowballs right into the dusty and rollicking Indiana Jones architectural treasure hunt mode, with a potential love interest and a man for the wisecracks right behind the hero. It’s good. 

In fact, this movie seemed to be all about mixing styles and genres because the soundtrack was an interesting score that was mainly all orchestral but then had certain tracks that had a synthesised sound. I found the soundtrack quite fascinating. 

And then there was the cast: a good but very odd one really. Starring Nicholas Cage, Justin Bartha, Diane Kruger, Sean Ban, Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel, and Christopher Plummer, National Treasure was a fun and light family adventure that was filled with action, adventure, history, spy-like stealth, romance, drama, and comedy. It’s by no means an astounding piece of cinematic history but it’s definitely a light feel-good one for those mindless nights in. I quite enjoyed it.