In National Treasure, the main characters are Ben Gates, Abigail Chase, Riley Poole and Ian Howe. For most of the movie, Ben, Abigail and Riley are the protagonist while Ian and his men are the antagonists. The major plot for the movie is about two groups wanting hidden treasure, but it gets complicated when they sabotage each other and split up to try to get it there way. Ben Gates comes from a long line of treasure hunters and now is seeking the treasure buried by the founding fathers. Ben thinks that he has clues to let him find this mythical treasure and the major one is the invisible map on the back of the Declaration of Independence. But Ian wants to steal it and Ben doesn’t trust him so he steals it himself. This is when Abigail comes in and tries to protect the Declaration of Independence, but gets intrigued by the treasure and stays on board because she finds the clues to be valid. Ben, Abigail and Riley work with and are against Ian and his men through the movie. Even though they work together for part of the movie they still are really against each other the whole time. Nicholas Cage, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha and Sean Bean play the main characters. Most of the movie was filmed in Washington DC near all the national monuments. I watched this film because it joins history and mystery, which are my favorite. But I also enjoy movies that have sequels so I watched the sequel after.
Through watching the movie, I watched Abigail Chase and Ben Gates get close and Ben and his father get close. I felt that relationships became a big theme and issue through out the film. In the beginning of the movie Ben Gates and his father are not close and disagree on almost everything but finding the treasure brings them back together. After his father is thrown into the hunt, they become closer than ever and begin bonding on the idea of finding the treasure after the treasure tore them apart. Ben and Abigail’s relationship also changed drastically from enemies to married. Abigail is trying to take the Declaration and protect it in the beginning. She slowly warms up to the idea of the treasure actually being real and by the end they are on the same team. So relationships play a huge role in the way the movie goes because emotions make decisions for them.
I enjoyed the mystery aspect of the movie the best. Ben Gates in the movie solves many riddles to get to the next clue. It combines his knowledge of history and the mystery skills to get to the next clue. For example, he learns that the secret lies with Charlotte and this leads him the ship named Charlotte. But he wouldn’t have known that if he did have the knowledge of the ship. So with having a great deal of background info on history, Ben would have never been able to find the ship or the treasure. The motion picture is also amazing when they are down under the church where the treasure is. There is no light so they use fire and this gives everything a very mystical and realistic look. When they find the treasure room it looks small as first but when Ben lights a column and it spreads the fire to rest of the room. The room goes from bathroom size to half a football field. The fire slowly moves towards the back and exposes more and more treasure and is an emotional seen because they discover a way out and get the treasure.
National Treasure has a great plot but runs on a little long at 130 minutes. The idea of mythical treasure being found is an intriguing idea but took a little while to get there. The plot runs on a little long because people lose interest when movies start to exceed two hours but I believe the directors and producers did a good job of handling that. The action scenes were very interesting because they clashed with mystery making the motion pictures very good. Some of the best parts of this film was the pictures and feeling they gave you. I felt like I was there and could feel the emotions of the characters in parts of the movie. Nicolas cage did great job acting with a determined role. He plays a little bit of a nerdy kid but determined at the same time and does a great job. On the other hand, I didn’t like his action scenes as much as the rest of the movie. Justin Bartha does a great job of being the little apprentice that is just along for the ride. He does a good job of acting like he is knowledgeable but doesn’t know as much as Nicholas Cage’s character.
National Treasure appeals to people whom like mystery and history movies. But if you enjoy action movies, you will probably enjoy it because it mixes history and action scenes. I enjoy action movies more than mystery and I loved this movie. So I recommend this movie for anyone who likes mystery, historical or action movies because it does a good job of mixing all of them. National Treasure was nominated for seven awards but only won one. It won the BMI film music award in 2005. This was for the music in national treasure and the emotion and suspense it brought to the movie. Film enthusiast can read more about this film on IMDB or other film review websites. They have plot summary, cast list, trailers and more. I recommend this movie for film enthusiast of all genres because it has offered something for everyone.