Fascinated by the National Treasure (Part 1), I have been moved to watch the National Treasure (Part 2) with high expectations.

As we might all remember (especially those who loved the first part), the story was quite a catch, and the build up of the adventure from clue to clue was really the hype of the whole movie.  For this second part (sorry to spoil some of you guys), my expectation of a more or less similarly built adventure was met.  (Yay!)

The movie is generally good.  I guess I should give it a 4 out of 5 rating.  I liked the way the story was presented in the beginning, and the chase and antagonism started early on at about 5-7 minutes of the movie.  (This is the part you should start thinking how the story would go).

I love it when they start the movie really good because it captures most of my attention and focus.  Hats off too to the plot.. just like Da Vinci's Code, the essence of the story is really good.  The twist of truth to history and adventure to every unveiled secret plus the choice of characters in the movie all played very well to its plot.  The actors and the music were all good too.  Even the set and everything counted as props were of good quality.

Now what makes it an eyesore?  Well, its the flaws.. the many flaws that they overlooked. In general, these wouldn't seem so harmful to the plot and the excitement of the movie, but for analysts and those who can easily eye on details, these are definite eyesores, and a cut off on ratings.

To name a few, here are some glitches that I found (according to the degree of my disappointment):

  1. In the ending, the last clue was a letter by Queen Victoria, written in parchment, with a candle wax seal.  Nothing fancy, as a matter of fact, I could have missed this flaw altogether.The parchment (having been more than a hundred years old) was just kept in a transparent plastic envelope case.  Ben's mother held it and attempted to read it.  The antagonist, avoiding any spill of clue, snatched away the parchment from Ben's mom just as if it were a newly printed sheet of paper.

    What was annoying was the way he sntached it (a very old letter could've been easily torn) and the way it sounded (it let out a crisp sound of a thick hard sheet of paper as compared to what I would've assumed as an old letter that might have been very worn out already).


  2. In the beginning, when the Civil War was discussed by Ben (with a hint of honor to family ancestors), the antagonist let out a missing part of the history that would uncover some untold facts to the truth of the Civil War.Again, it would have been an amazing find, except that the burned piece of paper was actually kept in another lame looking plastic envelope.

  3. As you would've assumed, there would be numerous technical hacks involved and some fancy IT related tasks to be rolled out as a crucial part of the plan.  The fault at hand was that the technical successes that they had was based on the strong assumption that anything was doable and that their apprentice–Railey was surely capable of it.To name some of the hacks they did successfully: they hacked the Buckingham Palace, the traffic system, etc.

  4. While they were in France, they had to look for a clue in the statue of liberty.  The easiest way to spy around the statue was via an electronic helicopter toy.  Unfortunately, they were issued a ticket for causing commotion.  (NOTE this irony compared to my next item).

  5. After getting the right clues from the statue of liberty, they headed to the Buckingham Palace, wherein, right after getting the clue, they were recklessly chased by their perpetrators.  The funny thing was, the chase was an ugly one, and a lot of damage was instilled.. though no police officer ever arrived to arrest them.. weird huh?

  6. During the point that they had to lose the artifact in exchange for an easy escape, they had to simply get its picture for analysis.  Having a tech savvy guy with them and hi tech phones, none of them had a phone camera.. and they had beat the traffic light to be able to get a snapshot of the artifact while holding it upfront his face.  Lame.. so lame.  I only had to acknowledge the brilliance of the traffic system for that.

  7. Kidnapping the President of the United States was an ingenious yet difficult plan.  Though it was carefully setup, I think the play along of the President, his love for architecture and trust on a tresure hunter was all pretty based on pure luck.  Ah, well.. the tunnel and the conversation they had althroughout was the good part.

  8. In the end, (see, I'm getting tired listing the flaws).. when the antagonist went along with their team (protagonists), there were some slips of character. The antagonist blurts out statements of regret and drama, then in the ending, he sacrificed his life for the survival of the protagonists' team.It could've been easy for the protagonist to execute his plan of leaving the chamber first, leaving Ben behind in the end, but what was executed was vice versa.  He helped Ben work on the grind to life the stone door, and was later on left with no choice but to be the last one to leave, eventually sacrificing his own life.

My honey says.. it's a "what the f.." ending.. I think so too.  But hey, the movie is great nonetheless.. I just hoped I'm not the kind of movie goer that I am, so that I could skip this long list of flaws and savor the excitement and thrilling chases of the movie.  :)

Nonetheless, if it still had a part 3 or 4, I'll still be a guaranteed fan.  So, go see The National Treasure (Book of Secrets) now.. Its really worth the time.