I wish Nicholas Cage’s performance was as impressive and fun to watch as the amount of Easter Eggs and Extras that are available on the first disc of this two disc set is. Besides, containing the movie about Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicholas Cage) and his hunt for the National Treasure, there are several featurettes and Easter Eggs that can be found on the first DVD. These include, National Treasure On Location, which is a short featurette focusing on the stunts, the amount of research done for the history backdrop of the movie, and the effects combination of CG and the real life stages they had built, such as the shaft scene that appears towards the end of the movie. There are two deleted scenes, an alternate ending, and the opening animatic intro also included on the first disc which was not included in the final film. All of these have an intro and commentary by the director, Jon Turteltaub, which can be toggled on or off.  After going through each of these features, you are given two letters at the end of each segment which you will use to help find the Easter Eggs that are on the DVD. The Easter Eggs that are included are a short featurette called Real Treasure Hunters Revealed, which is about…well…you guessed it…..real life Treasure Hunters. Also there is a decoding game hosted by Riley Poole which is actually kind of fun to go through. These featurettes really show how much research they did to try to make the movie feel that there really could possibly be an invisible map on the back of The Declaration of Independence that leads to a history filled room of treasure. There is also a quick segment about The Templar Knights and the facts and fiction of their history and treasure. And finally after you have gone through ALL of these Easter Eggs, you are given a Master Code that you can input that will play a subtitled Trivia Track during the movie that gives you trivial facts about the cast, producers, directors and history that supports the backdrop of the movie.

Even though the second disc has quite a few extras you actually feel cheated after all the effort they had put into the first DVD with the hidden Easter Eggs and mini game. Laid out in a straight forward boring format there are five more deleted scenes and a quick lesson about the history of coding and decoding over the ages. An in-depth look at the ship scene which the interior shots were actually shot onstage in a freezer in LA, and another segment that contains more behind the scenes footage and interviews of the cast and director. The final segment is a final summarization of the different history aspects of the movie that they used to give National Treasure as much realism as possible.

The worse part about this movie is Nicholas Cage. I still don’t find him believable as an action adventure hero. Even if it’s a nerdy type of adventure hero like the one he portrays in National Treasure. He just doesn’t have the “stage presence” to do an action adventure hero justice. Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Bruce Willis, just to name a few, have a presence on the screen that you can’t ignore. Heck, even Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has more stage presence then Nicholas Cage does on and off the screen.

The most impressive aspect of this movie is the amount of research they did for the backdrop of the movie. You don’t realize how much research was put into the movie until you go through all the featurettes that are included on this two disc set. Almost all the scenes that are in Washington DC and Philadelphia are filmed at their respectable locations giving the movie a more authentic look and feel.

Ben Gates hunt for the National Treasure leads him all over the world from Antarctica to The National Archives in Washington DC to Philadelphia.  With the FBI and his nemesis Ian Howe (Sean Bean) hot on his trail, Gates, with help from his father, Patrick Gates (Jon Voight), Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger) and Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) spend the movie trying to outmaneuver and out run their pursuers while themselves are chasing clues to where the National Treasure might be hidden.  This leads to some exciting action sequences that Turtletaub does a superior job of directing.

Overall this is a fun movie to watch. It won’t be any trend setting adventure film like Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it’s still entertaining to watch….even with Nicholas Cage as the lead protagonist. Luckily he has the help of the supporting cast of newcomers and old timers that drive the movie along and breathes life into what could be a dead pan movie. The amount and depth of extras on this two DVD set also gives you so much background information on the movie; you can’t help but be impressed with the amount of work and research that went into this movie.

-jason-