National Treasure WAS awesome. I went into that movie thinking Nicholas Cage is a crappy actor and an ignorant fvck. I thought the trailers made it look retarded and I went mainly to make fun of the holes in the plot..
Instead, I got a captivating action/thriller that kept me at the edge of my seat and my brain was actually working to try to figure things out as the movie unfolded. It wasn't say.. the smartest movie I ever saw, but it was smart enough that a smart person could enjoy it.
Seeing good movies like this get extra super horribly bad reviews by all the main critics while all my friends love it (think Equilibrium) keeps me believing that the critics are just owned and controlled by the companies that pay them, that also happen to own the media companies that made the movies..
For this movie, read user reviews. The critics are all douchebags. This is a good movie.