Night at the Museum Two - the Battle of the Smithsonian
Feeling vulnerable on a Saturday night, with a head cold and not enough sleep, I went along to the family friendly Night at the Museum Two, an incredibly light movie but with impressive effects, a weak plot and a lacklustre attempt at teaching history. I haven’t seen the first Night at the Museum but it was pretty easy to fill in the blanks. Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) has moved on from his job as a night guard at New York’s Museum of Natural History, to a successful life as a businessman who invents infomercial type junk. He goes back to visit the museum, where at night, the exhibits (Neanderthals, Teddy Roosevelt, a T-Rex) come to life because of a magical golden tablet (its origins, I’m sure are explained in the first film). However, the exhibits –his friends -are taken to be archived at The Smithsonian in Washington, along with the tablet. The tablet then makes all the other exhibits come to life in the Smithsonian and trouble unfolds. The evil Egyptian pharaoh Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria) becomes the ruler of the museum when awakened by the magic tablet, so he, and his “bad-guys of history’’ cronies need to be defeated.
Done on a huge budget with plenty of special effects and a few comedians thrown in for good measure, this movie was not that bad when watching it, but when thinking about it afterwards, it seems pretty blasé. Decent actors and comedians were smattered throughout the movie, but none were utilised as best they could, vast improvements could be had if there were less cameo appearances and more substantial scenes from the big guns in this film, like comedian/actor Steve Coogan who played a miniature Octavius. Ricky Gervais, who played the museum manager, fell a little flat using his signatory wry jibes and the gung-ho Bill Hader was also a little trite. Ben Stiller was OK, in a funny serious way, but the other main character, the brought-back-to-life Amelia Earhart, played by Amy Adams was totally weak and pointless, there to bring in the predictable love angle. More of a parents taking their kids kind of movie, but definitely good if you don’t want to do any thinking for a few hours- unless you want to absorb the jazzed up history lessons splashed throughout.