National Treasure (A general review)
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368891/>

Directed by Jon Turleltaub (From the earth to the Moon, Cool Runnings ...), this is a pleasant action/adventure movie that pits Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage) against an ancient free mason secret. The Gates learned, by way of fate, an ancient clue to a great national treasure. The bearer of the secret (Benjamin's great, great grandfather) never knew its meaning. The secret consumed his grandfather's life and at least 20 years of his father's life; yet this mild-mannered, overly-trained, historian cum treasure protector has dedicated his life and apparently gotten farther into the secret than anyone before him.

Interspliced with bits of trivia and history, the movie should not be confused with a historical story. History is used to move the plot along. The history sited, while not incorrect, provides a fascinating series of clues for the puzzle that Benjamin's family has spent generations trying to solve. The over-arching conspiracy of facts presented is meant to be far-fetched and easy to disbelieve; the pace of
the movie is set so that no rational mind has time to question or quantify what is being presented. The story is plausible, which is what makes it a good story.

Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the movie has its share of explosions, gun battles and car chases; but behind all of that there are still moments when either Benjamin or Ian Howe (Sean Bean) are seen trying to puzzle out the meaning of a cryptic clue. For those fast thinkers in the audience, the way they figure things out is as plausible as the story. For those knowledgeable about American history - you can actually guess
the answer before the movie provides it (and sometimes, in my experience, you might even be right).

The movie received rave reviews on its opening weekend. This came as a surprise to many internet reviewers. National Treasure bridges the gap between action/adventure and history in an interesting way, reminiscent
of Indiana Jones. Rather than focus on world history, however, the mystery of the national treasure is constrained only to the United States and only since its formation. Rather than provide a notorious
evil as a bad guy, you are presented the quintessential thief-on-vacation, Mr. Ian Howe; a man of great wealth and resources but not as much morals as Benjamin. Mr. Howe is not an evil man - not in the
same vein as evil is presented in the Indiana Jones movies; but he is an interesting, intelligent opponent with far more resources than our hero. Benjamin only matches Ian in determination; and it would seem that's
almost enough.

It is nice to see Sean Bean in more and more American movies.

To the claim against the quality of acting in the movie - people play rushed, harried, scared and stressed. That's not a lot of emotions to cover. There is no character growth or change so depth of character is quite difficult to see on screen. To anyone use to adventure movies may remember, characterization and drama are not the key points of an action film. Some is possible (to remember Indiana Jones fondly), but rare. The
movie does have a lot of dialog, and a lot of history and clues are jammed together that may be difficult to follow for those with hearing impairments, reading subtitles or unwilling to think. The dialog can be
ignored if one is there for the action, but in my opinion - ignoring the dialog means you can't complain about a lack of plot. The dialog is the plot. The action is just the sideline of the plot; the secondary events that happen along the way.

I liked the movie and believe anyone entering the theater with a desire to see an action/adventure movie will find their money to be well spent.

But then again, I like movies. I'm starting to think that most reviewers don't.