Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) and his family have earned a reputation for being treasure-chasing kooks. When a hunt for the fabled treasure of the Templar Knights leads to a map located on the back of the Declaration of Independence, Gates and his pal Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) hatch a plan to steal the document and hide it from Ian (Sean Bean), an in-it-for-the-money former colleague who will stop at nothing to locate the treasure. A National Archives curator named Abigail (Diane Kruger) somehow gets dragged into all of this, as does Ben’s dad Patrick (Jon Voight), who’s vainly spent years trying to convince his son that such pursuits are a waste of time.

CRITIQUE

Two words best describe National Treasure: too much. It is way too long, a little too slow, entirely too plotty, and contains too much exposition and far too many jokes. Which is a shame, because--warts and all--the movie actually is pretty entertaining in ridiculous, shamelessly contrived sort of way.

National Treasure is as an obvious attempt to mix (rip off?) the Indiana Jones flicks and The Da Vinci Code. It combines the humor, action and adventure of the former with the dubious history and goofy plotting of the latter. Fortunately, it’s not as dour or self-serious as Da Vinci; unfortunately, it doesn’t provide the sort of zippy escapism the Indy flicks do so well.

In terms of quality it rests somewhere in the middle, never scaling the heights of Indy (then again, what does?), nor plumbing the turgid, laughably pretentious and ludicrous depths of Da Vinci (thank the maker).

A dogged refusal to take itself too seriously is both the movie’s strongest asset and its biggest flaw. It’s not necessarily jokey in tone, and the characters don’t walk around throwing knowing winks at the camera, but there’s still the sense this is to be taken as nothing more than a pulpy lark, with just enough of an edge to keep it from being dismissible from the outset. (On the Indiana Jones Scale, it’s closest in tone to Last Crusade.)

Essentially, the movie takes the humor too far by supplying Bartha’s character with a nonstop series of wisecracks; I’d wager at least ninety percent of his dialogue is cracks or one-liners, some of them funny, most of them not. I’m all for witty banter or humor that develops naturally from a situation, but turning Bartha into the movie’s equivalent of Chevy Chase quickly becomes annoying. Midway through I was hoping he’d become the first casualty.

The story could have used some tightening. This is one of those look-for-clues-and-move-on plots, and by the end you have to wonder if they couldn’t have cut out one or two pieces of the puzzle. And at 131 minutes, this thing is simply much too long; shave twenty or twenty-five minutes off and it would work much better.

Furthermore, the pacing flags at several points along the way. That’s to be expected given the nature of the story (the characters are often forced to stop and explain what’s going on and how any clue/object fits in), but there are a number of scenes that simply don’t move the way they should. But I suppose I should have expected this, as director Jon Turteltaub (the latest member of producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s stable) also helmed the John Travolta flick Phenomenon, a movie so slow you expect it to be covered in moss by the time it reaches the final reel.

But the movie does still provide a good deal of fun--more fun than it really should given the talent involved (teaming the director of 3 Ninjas with the writers of Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle would appear to be a recipe for disaster). If you put your brain in neutral--and tell yourself no one hires Kruger for her acting ability--you might just find yourself suitably entertained.

THE VIDEO

I can remember being unimpressed by the transfer on the original standard-def release, but there’s not much to complain about with this disc’s 2.35:1/1080p video. Smooth and film-like throughout, the image here is detailed and sharp. Colors--Arctic blues and whites, vivid primaries, rich earth tones, and polished golds--are beautifully rendered. Digital noise is noticeable in a few shots (particularly the Arctic horizons), and softness creeps in a bit in some of the daytime exteriors (hey, I guess I did find something to complain about), but on the whole this is a very solid presentation.

THE AUDIO

Although it lacks the exacting finesse of the best high-def tracks, the uncompressed PCM 5.1 audio still provides a very pleasing experience. Dialogue is always clear and intelligible. Surround usage is plentiful (except for during the finale, which is oddly restrained), providing both interiors and exteriors with a very natural acoustic character; the expected gunshots and other standard action effects are seamlessly integrated.

Finally, bass action is deep and rumbling (the explosion of the Charlotte and the climax’s collapsing staircase are stunners). English, French, and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks are also included. English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

The commentary with Jon Turteltaub and Justin Bartha (exclusive to this Blu-ray release) is almost ruined by Bartha, who is just as annoying here as he is in the movie itself. Turteltaub’s comments are largely of a technical nature, although he does briefly cover the development and evolution of the script. Bartha simply makes lame jokes and acts like an idiot.

The following seven featurettes have been ported over from the recent 2-Disc Special Edition standard-def disc:

Exploding Charlotte (7 minutes) takes a look at the production of the Arctic sequence, including location filming, sets, and pyrotechnics.  

To Steal a National Treasure (6 minutes) covers (as much as is allowed anyway) the security measures in place to protect someone from actually walking off with the Declaration of Independence. 

On the Set of American History (6 minutes) looks at the real-life Washington and Philadelphia locations used in the movie.

National Treasure on Location (11 minutes) is an EPK-style making-of piece, looking at the project’s origins and casting. 

Treasure Hunters Revealed (9 minutes) provides a glimpse into the work of real-life treasure hunters.

The Templar Knights (5 minutes) offers a history lesson on the Templar Knights and Freemasons, separating fact from fiction with regard to these organizations and their roles in the movie’s plot.

Ciphers, Codes, and Codebreakers (12 minutes) looks at codebreaking throughout history and provides interviews with several expert codebreakers.

The alternate ending (2 minutes) isn’t much, acting primarily as a setup for a sequel. Turteltaub provides optional commentary for this scene.

The seven deleted scenes (16 minutes total) that are included are primarily needless character moments. Turteltaub also provides commentary for these scenes.

The Opening Animatic (3 minutes) is, as you might expect, a presentation of the movie’s opening sequence in animatic form. Turteltaub once again provides optional commentary.

The two remaining extras are also exclusive to this disc:

Mission History: Inside the Declaration of Independence is an interactive BD-Java feature that employs a digital recreation of the Declaration as a jumping-off point for several featurettes that deal with the document’s history, creation, etc.

Closing out the extras is a trivia track that provides text-based production notes and historical information.

FINAL THOUGHTS

More fun than it should have been, but not as much fun as it could have been, National Treasure makes for good watch-it-and-forget-it entertainment. Fans shouldn’t think twice about grabbing this one, but everyone else should definitely rent it first.