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I really liked the first National Treasure movie.\u00a0 It was fun and full of excitement. Jumping around the east coast, finding clues in national monuments that led to another, and another.\u00a0 I didn’t think I was going to like it when I first saw it, but I was in love with it by the end.\u00a0 Then, they made a sequel.<\/p>\n
What’s wrong with that you ask?\u00a0 Simple.\u00a0 The script.\u00a0 This thing plays like it was plotted by committee and written by Hollywood Hacks.\u00a0 Let’s go through the checklist:<\/p>\n
This movie took everything that was great about the first one, and threw it out the window!\u00a0 First, I hate this stupid plot device that Hollywood writers think they have to use at the start of a sequel.\u00a0 Break up the happy couple, so we can have the same “feel good feelings” from the first film.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 We don’t want to see the hero and heroine fall in love all over again.\u00a0 We want to see their relationship just as happy at the beginning as it was at the end of the first film.\u00a0 Otherwise, why get them together in the first place?!\u00a0 The journey of the film can still make their bond stronger, they just don’t need to start over!!\u00a0 But, this is a Disney film, where happy, functional families are illegal.<\/p>\n
The film starts with is big set up with Lincoln’s assassination, Ben Gates’ great-great-grandfather, and the Knights of the Golden Circle.\u00a0 After the story is told, do we ever hear of the KGC again?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 What was the point?\u00a0 To disgrace the great-great-grandfather’s name so that Ben was forced to go on the treasure hunt?\u00a0 There was no other way to get him interested?\u00a0 It had to be publicized widely?\u00a0 Wilkinson couldn’t have just gone to Gates and asked for his help?\u00a0 Wouldn’t the possibility that the link between Thomas Gates and the conspirators be enough to motivate him?\u00a0 That’s just lazy writing.<\/p>\n
Do I really need to explain the car chase?<\/p>\n
The plot device with the President I like and don’t like.\u00a0 I liked having Gates take the President on a mini treasure hunt for the escape tunnel in Mount Vernon, and I do understand that it would probably necessitate having the FBI and Secret Service on his back, but couldn’t the President have cleared that all up?\u00a0 The discussion of the Book of Secrets didn’t have to come up in anyone’s explanation of what happened.\u00a0 And it was the FBI that jumped to conclusions in the first place.\u00a0 It didn’t have to be the government that spurred the race to find the treasure.\u00a0 Wouldn’t the KGC have been better?\u00a0 They would have made better villains in the long run I think.<\/p>\n
Which brings me to Wilkinson’s motivation for wanting to get Gates on this hunt, while at the same time seeming to want to stop him.\u00a0 He wants to be remembered in history as somebody.\u00a0 That’s it.\u00a0 Doesn’t want the gold.\u00a0 No affiliation with the KGC, no grand schemes to expose\/protect the treasure.\u00a0 He causes all kinds of damage in London chasing Gates, assaults Gate’s father, and kidnaps him mother, just so his name will be put into a history book somewhere.\u00a0 That’s really shallow if you ask me.<\/p>\n
National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets<\/i> wasn’t a bad movie per se, but it just wasn’t as good<\/i> as the first.\u00a0 More time taken on the writing and plot, and it could have been something really good.\u00a0 If they do make another sequel so that we can learn what was on page 47, I hope they actually put some effort into it, so that this movie is the exception and not the rule to the National Treasure franchise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"