In Review: National Treasure

There was a lot to like in this movie. There were Masonic secrets, there was action and excitement, there were hidden underground complexes, there was Sean Bean (he brought more to the movie than anyone else (though Harvey Keitel wasn't bad in his 10 minutes)). There was a lot to roll your eyes about, too. The gratuitous love interest and the gratuitous comic relief were very gratuitous (there were even jokes about it within the movie). Even though the action was almost mathematically spaced throughout the movie, the momentum didn't seem to pick up until the last third. In a movie that's 2 and 1/2 hours long, that's somewhat painful.

I think I'm undecided about the movie in general. I know it didn't do anything to improve my overall opinion of Nicolas Cage's acting skills (he was more like Gone in 60 Seconds than ... hmmm ... whatever movie he's been good in). I also think that in the shadow of The DaVinci Code, National Treasure's version of the Knights' Templar/Masonic secret was somewhat uninspired. If King Solomon's Mines was the Steven J. Cannell-type Indiana Jones, National Treasure was CBS 2-part special. Take from that what you will.