On DVD: National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets

Directed By Jon Turteltaub

Starring Nicolas Cage, Justin Bartha, Diane Kruger, Jon Voight

When the first National Treasure film came out we were starved for an adventure flick.  There had been some previous attempts with the Tomb Raider films and Sarah but nothing really good.  National Treasure was surprising fun.  It featured great humor, fast paced action that never went over the top, and all the puzzle solving that comes with a good Indiana Jones style adventure film.  So when the second film Book of Secrets was announced I was thrilled.  Now it's on DVD for us to take a second look at.

The Film

There's a real trick to doing a film like this one outside of all the standard requirements like interesting well developed characters, and solidly paced energetic filmmaking.  It's the puzzle solving, the mystery part of the film that's challenging.  These segments have to feel real and intelligent but not so brainy that some of the audience gets lost in the babble.  Also, the investigator, in this case Nicolas Cage as Ben Gates and his team - Justin Bartha as Riley, Diane Kruger as Abigail, and Jon Voight as father Gates - should be able to discover the answers, not just know them.  If he knows all the answers there's no adventure really is there?

In this film Gates is on the lecture circuit speaking about his finds from the previous film and other artifacts.  At one such event he's discussing his own family's influence on a post Civil War event.  At this point we are introduced to Ed Harris' character who holds the Gates family in contention for that event in history setting Gates on his next adventure, this time to clear his family name.

You might have caught my hint above about the puzzle solving being portrayed in such a way that seems mysterious and challenging to the characters on the hunt.  It's in that part of the film where the problems exist.  In this sequel Gates and crew seem to just know the answers to every problem, even finding one of the answers in a book that Riley has just written.  There's no challenge to discovering the answers in this film at all taking the wind out of the sails for me.  Now, once they know the answers the challenges do come when the crew has to steal or at least closely examine various artifacts.  These sequences are well done with the action being perfectly executed and the pacing of these scenes being solid.

The characters are still a lot of fun and the set pieces are fairly exciting.  Even at over 2 hours the pace is so fast frantic that the time flies by.  Being a Disney film the action is exciting but it's all still family friendly stuff making it something for everyone to watch.  If only the mystery seem to have more depth rather than feeling like a tool to tie the action scenes together.  Even if that's what the mystery is truly for the writers have to do a better job of making not appear that way.  By the time the characters actually get into the "Resolute Desk" I was sick of the term by the way.  It seems like in those sequence the name of this desk was just uttered way to many times.

In the bonus features the director shares that as the first film was just hitting theaters that he and his team knew that if it was a hit they'd have to go right into working on the second one.  So work on the second movie of course started really quickly.  The film was just rushed into production too quickly.  When you hear that shooting had begun before the script was even finished things start to make a lot of sense.  National Treasure 2 isn't a horrible film but it's a definite downgrade from the first film.

6/10

The Video

The anamorphic widescreen presentation is really strong with good color representation sharp contrast and deep detail.  Black levels are solid and darker scenes never get too murky.  Grain is minimal and I didn't catch any print damage.  This film looks as good as you could hope for on a  standard def DVD.

9.5/10

The Audio

The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound is pretty splashy with good surround usage combined with nicely balanced dialogue and sound effects and a boomy score.  A DTS presentation would have offered a bit more dynamic range and bass use though.

8.5/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features

The two disc edition comes packaged in a standard amaray case with a glossy slipcover featuring the same art as the main cover.  The artwork is ok, featuring a waste up shot of Cage in action mode.

First up for extras is a feature audio commentary with the director and Jon Voight.  The director offers tons of behind the scenes stories of the making of the film and working with the cast.  He's personable and offers a solid commentary.  Voight doesn't have as much to say mostly talking about actors and acting but having him there as someone for the director to have a conversation with helped the commentary a lot.  Where was the rest of the cast?  No Nicolas Cage in the commentary?

Disc two features a bevy of bonus features starting with the behind the scenes featurette Secrets of a Sequel.  This brief featurette feels like a compilation of marketing sound bites. It's an ok watch but I really wanted deeper interviews.

The Book of Secrets on Location offers a really short look at the globe trotting nature of the film and discusses the fact that all of the backgrounds were actual locations.  I actually really appreciate that because shooting in the real places adds a layer of depth that can't be replicated by shooting in front of a green screen.

There are a couple of featurettes focusing on some of the major set pieces and stunts of the film, some deleted scenes, a blooper reel, a couple of shorts covering the creation of the President's book and the Golden City, a look inside the Library of Congress, and there's a couple of minutes dedicated to the real Knights of the Golden Circle.  All of these featurettes are extremely short with the longest of which running around 10 minutes.  There's good information in all of these featurettes but they are so short it seems like they could have been combined into one more comprehensive documentary, but had they done that the bonus feature list in the box would have been short.

There's a good amount of stuff on this second disc.  I'd like to have seen it presented in a more efficient and detailed way but as it is what's here actually enhances the viewing of the film and that's what a good set of bonus features should do.

8/10

National Treasure 2 Book of Secrets is often fun but the script is just too simplistic for this kind of movie.  All the creators need to do is look back at their first film to see how it should be done.  Fans of adventure films should at least give this one a look though.

Overall (Not an Average) 7/10

The Review

The Movie 6/10

The Video 9.5/10

The Audio 8.5/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features 8/10

Overall (Not an Average) 7/10

-Stephen Lackey