Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009)

Director: Shawn Levy

Cast: Ben Stiller as Larry Daley, Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart, Owen Wilson as Jedediah, Hank Azaria as Kahmunrah / The Thinker / Abe Lincoln, Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt, Christopher Guest as Ivan The Terrible, Alain Chabat as Napoleon, Steve Coogan as Octavius, Ricky Gervais as Dr. McPhee, Bill Hader as General Custer, Jon Bernthal as Al Capone, Patrick Gallagher as Attila The Hun, Jake Cherry as Nick Daley, Rami Malek as Ahkmenrah, Mizuo Peck as Sacajawea

The first "Night at the Museum" worked despite conventions for a few
reasons, but the main one was that it eased into its premise of museum
exhibits coming to life and didn't take it for granted like "Night of
the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian" does. I'm actually surprised
the writers of the first film wrote this sequel, because Thomas Lennon
and Robert Ben Garant handle these characters like they're someone
else's creation and they can butcher them all they want.

"Night at the Museum 2" sucks the magic out of the original and
overdoses on characters as well as meandering sarcasm and awkward
humor. Save some bright spots in character acting from a delightful and
plucky Amy Adams and some bright spots from Hank Azaria and Christopher
Guest, "Smithsonian" will disappoint most defenders of the first film
-- except kids and anyone else who'll bite on an outrageous premise.

Ben Stiller stars again as Larry Daley, only our beloved night security
guard has randomly become a mastermind of As Seen on TV products. That
decision alone completely destroys the continuity between this film and
the last, forcing Larry's story to be something totally different than
the single dad trying to be a role model for his son. Now son is
hacking into the Smithsonian Institute floor plans to direct his dad to
the location of the tablet that brings things to life at night. See the
Museum of Natural History is going digital and all the beloved
characters of the first film are shipped to the national archives in
DC, only that naughty monkey brought the tablet with him and so the
Smithsonian has come to life.

Our source of conflict is the Pharaoh at the Smithsonian, Kahmunrah,
played by Azaria doing his best Stewie Griffin impression, who wants
the tablet to unleash his army, so he gets help from Napoleon, Ivan the
Terrible (Guest) and young Al Capone. At least director Shawn Levy
realized the asset they had in Azaria and had him voice a couple other
key statues that come to life later on. Azaria's too good for this
film, really, but he plays at its level instead of pushing it and even
manages a few of the better laughs when he puts a major diss on Darth
Vader.

Then there's Amy Adams, the lone diamond in a sea of forced comedy and
excessive cameos. It might seem like loving Adams is the "it" thing,
but she brings the imaginative spirit sorely lacking in the film as
Amelia Earheart. Every time she speaks it literally feels like the film
gets more believable because she's such a convincing spirit. She also
gets to work her best Katherine Hepburn impression to boot.

But "Smithsonian" is more defined by its disappointments and synthetic
sequel material. Lennon and Garant try and include too many characters
between the old ones and the new ones and the film just feels chaotic.
It's like a contest to see how many new ideas of different things they
can bring to life from paintings and photos on the wall to historical
monuments in DC.

Worst of all, it's completely rushed. Understood that we get the
coming-to-life premise and we aren't going to be surprised by it, but
they take all the fun out of it. Levy figures a shot a piece of the
statues of Amelia and Bill Hader's Col. Custer are adequate foreshadow,
but they're not. Daley just cons his way into the archives and the
story rockets right into the Smithsonian with a few quick facts about
what it is to provide context.

"Night at the Museum 2" does just about everything we used to be
terrified of sequels doing in the '90s -- overdoing it and diverting
from the core values that won some love for the original because that
film wasn't just about things coming to life.

~Steven C

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