NATIONAL TREASURE: EDGE OF HISTORY -- A Labored but Diverting Reboot

Review by Sean Boelman

The National Treasure movies were lightning in a bottle in the mid-2000s. An absolutely game Nicolas Cage stealing the Declaration of Independence as part of a larger-than-life treasure hunt through American history? Sign me up! Disney+ hopes to revitalize the franchise with the new series National Treasure: Edge of History, and while it’s not quite as strong as one would hope, it still shows plenty of potential.

The film follows a 20-year-old DREAMer who dreams of becoming an FBI agent and adventurer as she sets out on the treasure hunt of a lifetime, which may have an unexpected connection to her family’s past. So far, it’s following very similar beats to the first two films — just taking its time to do so over an entire season.

Ultimately, the biggest issue with this show is that it doesn’t seem to have the substance it would take to sustain a ten-episode arc. In the first two episodes, our heroes embark on their treasure hunt and find their first two clues. The rate at which they find their clues is really going to need to speed up — or else the show will lose its audience’s interest pretty quickly.

As a welcome development, the series does feature a diverse cast. At times, it does feel like tokenism — as if they just wanted to make the character a Latina to appeal to a more international audience — but at other points, they integrate it much more naturally. Hopefully future episodes will go more in-depth on the Latin American origins of the treasure.

That being said, while it is nice to see the series being led by a more diverse hero(ine), the character is nowhere near as compelling as Nicolas Cage’s Ben Gates. Granted, there’s a lot more time for her arc to be expanded, but it’s a little frustrating to have a rehash of the character’s arc being coping with their family’s mysterious and potentially dark past.

There’s also the issue of the sidekicks, who aren’t particularly interesting or charming. It’s clear that some of them, like a sneakerhead/influencer, are designed to appeal to a younger Gen Z audience, although this comes at the expense of the older Gen Z/Millennial audience who grew up with the original films. 

The technical value of the series is about as one would expect of a made-for-streaming reboot of a franchise that was popular a decade ago, and that’s to say it isn’t anything special. There aren’t any particularly memorable set pieces in the first two episodes — the most glaring omission keeping this reaching the heights of the films — but there is plenty of time left to remedy that.

National Treasure: Edge of History is a fun time, even if it does struggle to match the shadow of its schlocky fun predecessors. Still, after two episodes, it’s intriguing enough to be excited about where this world may expand in further episodes and future installments.

National Treasure: Edge of History streams on Disney+ beginning December 14. Two out of ten episodes reviewed.

Rating: 3/5