Eventually (and I’m leaving out a lot, including a really great sequence where Ben kidnaps the President and then he, Abigail and Riley go to the Library of Congress to look at the Book of Secrets, which is where all the presidents have written down the really cool stuff), everyone, including bad guy Harris, winds up at Mount Rushmore and gets down to serious treasure hunting. Danger and excitement ensue, cool stuff is found, the feds get involved … the usual when the Gates family is involved.
I think there was a better string of clues in the first film, but there are some fun elements here, including the Book of Secrets itself. Now, there’s some fertile pickings for another sequel! (And there’s a set-up for that in here, too.) And, according to one of the featurettes, the London car chase mentioned above is the biggest ever done in London, and if you know the city, you’ll find it amazing. (I’d actually assumed it had been shot elsewhere, and am still blown away by the notion that it was actually shot in London, on real London streets.)
About those featurettes: There are a ton of them. One small quibble – the titles are hard to read on the menu screen because of the design, at least, they were on my admittedly somewhat small screen. But, the printed material with the DVDs includes maps of what’s on each disc (movie with optional commentary track by director Jon Turteltaub and Jon Voight on disc one, special features on disc two), which helps.
There are five deleted scenes of varying length, all introduced by Turteltaub, who explains why they didn’t make the final cut. There’s also a general making-of and then separate featurettes on the locations, how the London car chase was done, a close-up look at the underground scenes, how the City of Gold was made, a short history of the Knights of the Golden Circle (the bad guys), how the Book of Secrets was made (though no answer as to whether it’s really real or not), and how the Library of Congress scenes were done. There’s also a blooper reel, which is pretty short. It’s cute, but not laugh-out-loud funny.
The history aspects of the first National Treasure really made that film for me; being less familiar with the Civil War era, the information in the featurettes was very interesting and helpful, so kudos for that.
The sound is Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, and there are optional French and Spanish tracks as well as French and Spanish subtitles. Great soundtrack and special effects, by the way.
Cage does action well, and Bartha is just a delight. Rock solid supporting cast, and everyone seems to be having a good time. (Wait until you see Voight and Mirren swinging across a chasm on a vine!) Not quite as good as the original, but still a lot of fun, enough fun that I really hope there will be a National Treasure 3! (That’ll be Secrets of Page 47 … you’ll understand.)
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