You could equally well say it feels like the difference between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Portrait of a Young Man and Ulysses or Firefly and Serenity in the transition from a story about one girl and one town to one with truly global scope.

I have no idea what National Treasure is, was the first movie any good either? But two points of comparison do not make a pattern or I'm as dead as my ex-cat (being also a mammal).