The second Night at the Museum movie proves yet again that bigger isn’t always better.
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Directed by Shawn Levy
Starring Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Hank Azaria, Robin Williams
**
I wasn’t what you’d call a fan of the first Night at the Museum, which became a surprise box-office smash when it bowed in theaters in December 2006. At the same time though, I found it a fairly harmless family movie that had a few moments of genuine wonder (I could feel the excitement from the kids in the audience when the dinosaur skeleton came to life for the first time) amidst all frenetic chase sequences and overly broad comedy. It also seems harsh to trash a film that, at the end of the day, goes out of its way to make a trip to a museum seem cool. Lord knows parents have a hard enough time getting their kids to do anything vaguely educational these days—if they can at least get them into a theater to see a movie about a museum that counts as a win.
Call me a cold-hearted cynic, but I can’t be as forgiving the second time around. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian falls into the trap endemic to most sequels in that it’s content to simply repeat the first movie on a bigger scale without trying to improve any of its flaws. Moving the action from New York’s Museum of Natural History to the storied Smithsonian in our nation’s capital, Night Part Duh’s overly busy plot finds security guard-turned-entrepreneur Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) jetting to D.C. in pursuit of his wax figure friends, who have been sent to deep storage in the institute’s underground archives.
Before they were packed onto the moving truck, that troublemaking capuchin monkey Dexter swipes the mystical Egyptian tablet that brings him and the rest of the museum’s relics to life once the sun goes down. Well aware of the chaos that will result if the Smithsonian’s entire collection is re-animated, Larry infiltrates the Smithsonian’s vault only to discover that he’s not the only person in pursuit of the tablet. Also in lockdown in the archive is another relic from ancient Egypt, pharaoh-in-waiting Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria), who plans to use it to open the gate to the underworld, where his army of freaky birdmen is waiting to assist their ruler in his nefarious plans for world domination. Allying himself with some of history’s most notorious villains, including Ivan the Terrible (Christopher Guest) and Al Capone (Jon Bernthal), Kahmunrah forces Larry to go on the offensive, assembling his own crack squad of historical luminaries from General Custer (Bill Hader) to Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) to the giant stone statue of Abraham Lincoln that sits in the Lincoln Memorial.
In its eagerness to top its predecessor, Battle of the Smithsonian piles on celebrity cameos–including Jonah Hill, Mindy Kaling and Oscar the Grouch–CGI-created creatures and endless chase sequences. It works so hard to give the audience a good time, you can practically see the flop sweat onscreen. But the filmmakers have miscalculated, producing a movie that is overstuffed with gimmicks, but short on charm and creativity. Fans of the original may also be disappointed by the way their favorite characters are sidelined to make room for the uneven new cast. While Adams is as charming as ever–though its worth pointing out that she seems to be playing Katherine Hepburn rather than Amelia Earhart–the usually reliable Azaria doesn’t generate a single laugh as the buffoonish heavy. There’s also something disingenuous about the movie’s message, which essentially boils down to: “It’s okay to give up your dream job as long as it makes your friends happy.” Here’s a thought: try taking your kids to an actual museum this Memorial Day weekend. It’s cheaper than a trip to the movie theater to see Battle of the Smithsonian and a lot more entertaining.
Verdict: Skip It
