Review of National Treasure (2004) by Cameron M — 27 Dec 2015

Not really a Christmas film in content, but it's fun for all the family plot gives it a somewhat festive feel to it. Everything about it screams Indiana Jones, but just not as good. It's like the film was produced by an understudy of Spielberg, and even Nicholas Cage doesn't have the Harrison Ford swagger about him.

People aside though, this is very watchable and something for the young adventurer to get their teeth into, a treasure hunt with ridiculously hard clues that don't make any sense to you and I, but yet still provide a captivating watch as the heroes try to remain in front of the villains every step of the way.

Who doesn't love a good fantasy but you can't help but feel this missed a trick when you refer to how well received the likes of the Goonies was as well. Maybe this is trying to be too clever, and over complicating things when a more juvenile touch would have been preferred.

Sean Bean provides a decent enough enemy but the plot twist with Cage going from friend to foe at the beginning was very reminiscent of the Golden Eye moment in the James Bond series, giving this an even more copycat script feel.

Despite all this, I did enjoy it, but with the components at its disposal, I think it could have made more and would probably be considered a flop should it have spent big in its budget. National Treasure by name, but this certainly won't be a national treasure in nature.