Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

I only went to see this movie because we had missed our show time for Up. I was not particularly excited about this movie, but wanted to see it anyways. I thought the first one was not bad, and quite entertaining at points. I don’t think I would be that sad if I never saw it again, but there are worse things to watch than the original Night at the Museum. One of those worse movies to watch is the sequel.

The movie catches up with the night guard from the first film (Stiller), who has now moved on to other things. Eventually, he gets pulled in to helping his magic friends out of a bind at the Smithsonian. Sounds like a great premise right? Has potential for more great laughs and adventure, right? Sure it does. But unfortunately it does not deliver them very well. Yes, there are a few laughs and some excitement, but the film wastes most of it’s time going from side show to side show, one special effect after another, and making every odd object they possibly can dance and/or sing (the cherubs from the fountain are quite painful to watch).

The story itself is actually pretty lame, and not very interesting. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail, because there really isn’t much. And another note of caution: don’t think too hard. It will just make it worse. One example of some questions to avoid pondering: “With that racket, explosions and smashing, why has not one alarm gone off? Where are all the other security guards?”

There are other equally mind numbing holes in this movie, especially with the villain, and the other ‘side-shows’ with plenty of modern day tacky catch phrases. So why see it? Well, it’s still fun. There are a couple of laughs, and the character of Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) is quite charming, with lots of witty jokes at her expense. Ben Stiller does his usual lovable doofus who learns a valuable lesson, if you are a fan of that… but he’s still not at his best. However, it will entertain the kids.

All in all: Tour de Tasteless

Worthy sequel? No.

Lives up to the pre-views? Nah.

Stars (out of five): 2.5

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