National Treasure: Edge of History

I normally do not feel the need to review something, but with how many negative reviews are on here, I do. All of these Negative Nancy's were expecting the show to be JUST like the movie when a show and a movie are two different kinds of artistic interpretation. We knew it wouldn't have the old characters to the extent that the movies did and that it would include newer characters.

That being said, I am actually thoroughly enjoying not only the acting of the main college-aged cast, but also the diversity within it. The only character/actor that I am not enjoying in this is Catherine's character, Billie.

It's not meant to feel like the movies, because it's not a movie. It's a TV show with MUCH younger characters than that of the original duology, which WILL make an impact on the feel of the show.

It has the history and it has the puzzles. It may show it in a different way, but guess what? It's been 15 years, which mean technology is also being used differently, but that doesn't and shouldn't mean it's bad every time.

If you loved the movies, give this series a shot and make the decision for yourself. Don't listen to all the naysayers.

Not sure why there is so much hate for this. But most of the reviews seem to be written after only two episodes, so are clearly just people whinging for the sake of it.

It's a bit slower than the films (for obvious reasons), and has a very tedious link to the original movies, but i did not think it was anywhere as near as bad as the reviews i have read on here.

I will be continuing on with the rest of the show, as i think it is worth watching.

But like others, I'm still hoping they make a 3rd movie with the original cast before cage gets too old to pull it off (possibly already at that stage) or at least complete the story they left us hanging on.

This show is so stupid (or thinks its viewers are), i don't even know where to start. Its so stereotypical - Every "Villain" couldn't spread butter on bread because of a lack of brain cells, and the "super smart" (can convert days to years months and weeks - wow, mensa here we come...) main character can do no wrong and apparently having learned latin at some point is a sign of beeing smart in someone eyes. As per usual these days when Disney allows writers to ruin their IPs that they would not have let anywhere near their scripts 20 years ago, the show does not know what it wants to be, adventure?, teen drama maybe? Comedy? .. Gotta cram everything in there and make it as cringe as humanly possible. While i think the underlying idea had some potential, the execution did not. The Show clearly struggles to even know who it is targeted at (age and interest wise)(with a 14+ Rating, it can't target the age group (12 and under) that it seems to target). The Story has more holes in it than a mile of Swiss cheese and unless you pay absolutely no attention to what's going on , you will be left shaking your head and rolling your eyes more times than i would consider healthy. The Cast is fine, but obviously can't overcome the bad writing. When your character is written with no depths and so agenda driven that the character development feels like someone with no understanding of Peoples behaviour / any kind of human interaction was in charge of that, blaming the cast for anything just feels wrong. It has None of the charm of the Movies, (my suspicion is Bruckheimer had only in name anything to do with this show and actually had 0 input) the few throwbacks to the movies feel forced and completely arbitrary. The Fx in the show would be outdated and perceived as bad in a 90s show. There was a lot of potential with the "National Treasure" IP ,but this show does not realize any of that potential, it could be just a generic teen treasure hunter show on the cw for that matter. The only reason this gets 2 stars instead of 1 is the cast.

Overall it is dissapointing and sad that it is so bad, yet not completely unexpected.

If this is to engage younger audiences, then understandable. However don't write down and simplify narrative and story .... To broaden your audience because you get this drivel... I love Catherine Zeta Jones and Harvey Keitel. They were the only characters keeping me in. The lead young woman Lisette Olivers is also great... it's the supporting cast and the sloppy writing that makes me wish they all would fall into a well, never to be found. If Zuri Reed shouts "patriarchy" one more time I'm gonna throw my shoe at my tv. I get it, the original cast is too expensive en masse (I guess) but then spend on writers. This seems sooooooo boring but there's a great story tucked away. I cannot relate to any characters because they're just so naive, dumb and trivial... I don't care about any of them. Except for Catherine Zeta & Lisette.

ALSO! Disney! Stop being so lazy!!!! The last two relatively Hispanic characters have been named "Jess Valenzuela" and "America Chavez". Why not add a Lisa Porto Rico, James Brazilo and Gloria Chilis. It's juror terrible and lazy. I get it... "America Chavez" is a Marvel creation BUT she's a marvel creation from 2021..... so DO BETTER. Some of us brown people have names like, George, Abby, Peter with last names like Richards, Moro, and Jones.

The two takeaways from this rant... is your writing is poor and honestly superficial. I, and maybe more of us with a 4-5 star review do not care about these characters. Nor if they take on this adventure. Try harder with character development and names.

Also I love that Charley Koontz (Fat Neil) was in this!

If any of you remember the 90's, Disney was great at taking established successful stories and turning their sequels into junk. Lately all this Disney plus stuff has felt like that. Other than Star Wars, most of the marvel stuff, willow, and now this. I will still watch them but very disappointed. Mandalorian bad batch, and Andor have all been relatively huge successes compared to anything else original that Disney plus is putting out. National treasure started from cheesy but entertaining films. Nicholas cage made those movies fun. How can disney think they can do this without him? He is an icon!