National Treasure: Edge of History

The National Treasure films are a particular guilty pleasure of mine.  I love the idea of “treasure hunters” using hidden clues to unravel a mystery based on historical events.  The two movies both star Nicholas Cage as an adventurer whose ancestry relates to the founding fathers of the United States. With his friends and love interests, he unravels clue after clue leading him to “National Treasures”.  The new television series streaming on Disney+, is less rooted in U.S. history and more in Central and South American lore and stars a new and younger cast. Harvey Keitel does reprise his roll as Agent Peter Sadusky, whose death in the first episode is what partially sparks this new adventure.

Jess (Lisette Olivera) is a young DACA woman living in Louisiana, whose mother passed away the year before and whose father, she was told, was a deadbeat thief.  Jess’ dream is to work for the FBI and she is especially good at solving puzzles.  When her boss asks her to track down the mysterious owner of a storage unit, she is led to Peter Sadusky who she discovers may somehow be linked to her father. Sadusky is suffering from dementia and gives her a letter addressed to his grandson, Liam (Jake Austin Walker) who wants nothing to do with his father.  When Sadusky dies “in his sleep”, Jess opens the letter in search for clues to her own past and begins a journey that puts her and her friends in the crosshairs of Billie (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a black-market antiquities dealer after Montezuma’s fabled treasure which Jess’ father and Liam’s father both died trying to find and protect.

I did like the first two episodes which were released simultaneously.  The story is interesting, the characters have some good backstories and are all pretty likeable.  I feel like Catherine Zeta-Jones is in a lot of things lately, having played Morticia Addams in Wednesday, and now playing the slightly over the top villain in this.  Between the two, I think she was better suited for the role of villainess and does a great job in National Treasure, being a bit evil and threatening.  Lisette is also well cast, with a type of innocence mixed with an amazing ability to see patterns and notice the unnoticeable in everyday objects similar to the Nicholas Cage character in the original. Jake is handsome and charming but with a big chip on his shoulder, which seemed to get knocked off pretty quickly making him a bit more likeable by the end of the second episode.

Although I did enjoy the show, it is missing that something special that made the originals a “Guilty Pleasure” of mine.  In the original films, the cast seemed to be doing these movies for the sole outlandish fun they were to make.  With over the top stories and Nicholas Cage chewing the scenery which he does so well.  This show just might take itself a bit too serious instead of just being over the top exaggerated fun!