Review by Leonard Norwitz
Studio:
Theatrical: Jerry
Bruckheimer Films
Blu-ray: Walt Disney Studios
Home Entertainment
Disc:
Region: FREE!
(as verified by the
Momitsu region FREE Blu-ray player)
Runtime: 2:11:04.481
Disc Size: 48,881,768,136 bytes
Feature Size: 34,933,370,880 bytes
Video Bitrate: 24.28 Mbps
Chapters: 19
Case: Locking Blu-ray case
Release date: May 20th, 2008
Re-issue release date:
February 8th, 2011
Video:
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Bitrate:
Audio:
LPCM Audio English 6912 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 6912 kbps /
24-bit
Dolby Digital Audio English 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
/ DN -4dB
Dolby Digital Audio French 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
/ DN -4dB
Dolby Digital Audio Spanish 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
/ DN -4dB
Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
/ DN -4dB
Subtitles:
Feature & Extras: English
SDH, French, Spanish, and
none
Extras:
• High Def Exclusive:
Mission History: Inside the
Declaration of Independence
• Audio commentary by Jon
Turteltaub and Actor Justin
Bartha
• Alternate Ending with
optional commentary by the
Director
• Deleted Scenes with
optional commentary by the
Director
• Alternate Ending
• Exploding Charlotte (6.5
min.)
• National Treasure On
Location (11 min.)
• On the Set of American
History, with the cast (6
min.)
• To Steal a National
Treasure (6 min.)
• The Templar Knights (5
min.)
• Opening Scene Animatic: a
storyboard in motion (3
min.)
• Cyphers, Codes &
Codebreakers (12 min.)
• Treasure Hunters Revealed,
with real-life hunters (8.5
min.)
The Film:
Comment
Disney plans
Blu-ray
releases of both National
Treasure movies on May 20,
simultaneously with a 2-Disc
"Collector's Edition" SD/DVD
of the sequel (the first
movie having been given the
2-disc treatment 6 months
earlier.) Both Blu-ray
editions will port over all
the features of the SD
collector's editions, along
with a few exclusive bits of
their own.
By now you are no doubt
fully up to speed on the
connections between the
National Treasure and the
Indiana Jones movies: Over
there we have quests for the
Ten Commandments and the
Holy Grail; over here, it is
the U.S. Declaration of
Independence and the
President's "Book of
Secrets" that must be in
hand. In both cases, a
treasure would be
forthcoming once the relic
is in hand, though in the
case of Indiana Jones, that
treasure is metaphysical
(infinite power and eternal
life) and for the treasure
hunters in the new movies,
it is actual
reach-out-and-touch-it gold
and spoils of war – an
indication of how our values
have devalued in the
intervening decades.
In both cases, there are bad
guys and good guys on the
quest, with the usual and
expected behaviors from
each. In the new movies, we
also have the presence of
the police, with a
remarkably level-headed
chief. There is even the
familiar tinge of justifying
a life's work – in the
present case, that work is
generational, going well
beyond the father and son
dynamics of the Indiana
Jones trilogy. The
differences are interesting:
Most important is that the
Indiana Jones relics are so
remote and bound with
religiosity that the
producers wisely chose to
leave comment to the
audience; but in the new
movies, comment is
deliberate and, to an
extent, educational.
The first National Treasure
movie deals with an actual
document, with a history
lesson forthcoming. The
title of the sequel is faux
history and not much is made
of its contents, except in
our imagination, but the
movie does lead to comment
on – or, at least, there is
an awareness of - the
heritage of this continent's
native population. Despite
the intentions of the
filmmakers - and this is all
the more evident from the
commentaries - this
intention turns out to be
empty. (The antiquated
phrase "Indian-giver" just
popped into my head, only in
inverse, like we're trying
to make up for the
deliberate, yet careless way
that the European white man
ravaged the native Indian
population.)
The key to the movies is in
how cleverly our treasure
hunters work out the clues.
It's nice to see them bat
around various ideas until
they arrive at what they
think is the right answer.
(It is extraordinary how
they are never wrong.) For
me, there are two
difficulties: the first is
that while I don't see
myself as a particularly
stupid person, I could never
have arrived at the same
point they did even if I had
the historical and
faux-historical knowledge
they do, which kind of
leaves me out of the loop. I
prefer a mystery to reveal
its method as it goes along,
following a logical train of
thought, even if
fictionalized. But at times
such leaps of logic in both
movies border on laughable,
though the actors manage a
straight face – God bless 'em.
But Turteltaub is no fool.
He knows he can hide the pea
anywhere he wants because
many of the factoids
presented are known only to
the participants – and the
history they are working
from may or may not be
figments of the writer's
imagination. Turteltaub is
counting on our willingness
to accept the story's
spiraling clue structure
simply because it is
imaginative, not because of
it's logical or factual, and
even though the treasure
hunters appear to be
following a logical train of
thought. Such a device would
probably not work in a novel
since we would have enough
time to become distressed by
any serious leaps of logic,
but as far as movie making
goes, I thought Ben's
cryptoanalysis on the fly to
be a fairly clever ploy. It
was certainly amusing. The
action and the actors keep
us from worrying too much
about how they got from A to
B.
The Movie : 7
Since childhood, Ben Gates
(Nicholas Cage) has been on
a quest to find the treasure
of the Knights Templar. But
it's not a mere jewel
encrusted falcon he's after,
but a roomful of the stuff.
He comes to believe that the
most recent protectors of
the treasure were the
Masons, including the likes
of Benjamin Franklin. They
hid clues to the treasure's
whereabouts in various
letters and documents – for
starters, the Declaration of
Independence. Ben's partner
in this quest is Ian Howe
(Sean Bean), who shows his
hand early in the movie in
an attempt to bury Ben and
his computer wizard friend,
Riley Poole (Justin Bartha),
in the arctic. Ben realizes
that Ian will try to steal
the Declaration to learn its
secret clues and destroy it
in the process, so they try
to warn the FBI and other
agencies of the threat –
thus Abigail Chase (Diane
Kruger), who is something
like a curator of the
National Archives. Everyone,
including the lovely Ms.
Chase, shines them on so
they decide to steal it
before Ian and company get
their filthy hands on it.
Ian and Ben meet,
unexpectedly and
unfriendlylike, in the
basement where the document
is under Mission Impossible
security.
Image:
Image : 8.5 (7.5~9/9)
The score of 8.5 indicates a
relative level of excellence
compared to other Blu-ray
DVDs. The score in
parentheses represents:
first, a value on a ten
point scale for the image in
absolute terms; and, second,
how that image compares to
what I believe is the
current best we can expect
in the theatre.
Frankly, I was surprised at
vagueness of the image at
times, especially in the
prologue and arctic
sequences. On the other
hand, there were times when
the acuity was altogether
too great considering what
came before and after. I
assume this is how the movie
was hot, but that's just an
assumption. Most of the
time, the image looked
rather flat and uninvolving.
Audio & Music:
Audio & Music : 7/6
Alas, I regret to confess
that I'm still waiting for
my new surround system, so I
will not be of much help in
sorting out the differences
between the two audio mixes
(5.1 Uncompressed for the
original movie and Dolby
True HD for the sequel), but
in the two channel mixdown
from the 5.1 DD, there is no
question that the sequel's
audio is clearer and more
dynamic.
I don't know about you, but
I've just about had it with
Bruckheimer music. Trevor
Rabin's score is repetitive
and so derivative, I wasn't
sure if I was supposed to be
on a submarine, exchanging
countermeasures with the
Russians, or breaking into
Alcatraz.
Operations:
Operations : 8
Walt Disney Studios Blu-ray
DVDs continue their chapter-skipable
previews and promos before
the endless loading of the
feature film begins. As in
some other recent Blu-ray
DVDs, I found the menu
operations to be sensible,
listing the length of the
various segments along with
a brief description. I
should also note that this
DVD has some very clever
menu functions, including a
sleuth's magnifying glass
that moves with the mouse.
Kudos.
Extras : 6
I found the commentary a bit
difficult, especially with
the mosquito noise provided
by Justin Bartha. I found
Bartha tries much too hard
to be cute, and it was work
to sort out fact from
fiction even as regards the
background of the film. In
short: a little humor goes a
long way in these things.
But the high def extra
feature Mission History:
Inside the Declaration of
Independence was fascinating
and informative, despite
Bartha's tongue-in-cheek
approach to the material.
Though sensibly sorted out
techinically, my player took
its dear old time moving
from one function to the
next, but once I realized
the delay was only that, I
found this feature alone was
worth the purchase of the
DVD. The SD featurette
concerning the history of
codes is also intriguing.
Bottom line:
Recommendation : 8
Recommended mostly for the
extra feature Mission
History. The movie's not
half bad, and it certainly
has its supporters. It's not
Indiana Jones, but then
again, who is?
Leonard
Norwitz
April 27th, 2008
November 8th, 2010
