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movie review - National Treasure

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

This is a movie about two gangs of treasure seekers who jointly discover that there is a clue to the location of an immense wealth located on the back of the US Declaration of Independence.

While this simple action/adventure flick was better than I'd expected, I wasn't really expecting much. Nicholas Cage is an odd choice for the lead role in this movie, which was a low-key Indian Jones type.

In fact, the whole thing was a bit low-key. The pace wasn't entirely action/adventure speed, the dialog was a bit awkward, and the plot was extremely cookie-cutter, giving you the sense that the story was dragging on its way to its conclusion.

One amusing thing they try to do with this film is maintain a sense of reverence for the Declaration and its authors. They do this by attributing all kinds of inventions and ideas to the authors, and by having characters make dubious sacrificies for the piece of paper itself. Also, they're clever in having the rival gang of treasure seekers be British, though I'm not sure how much of the crowd would have picked up on the significance of this.

Not recommended.