Thanks for checking out our Night At The Museum 2 review.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the first “Night At The Museum” movie. Despite a solid all star cast I personally found it to be rather bland. Not a “bad” movie, but neither was it “good”. However, one can’t deny the sheer success of the film at it grossed over $250 million at the box office in North America alone and was the second highest grossing film of 2006 behind only Pirates of the Caribbean 2. With money like that, the question of “should” we make a sequel becomes replaced with “dear heavens how quickly can we make a sequel”?
So out comes Night At The Museum 2. Was it any good. Well… actually… it really wasn’t bad at all.
THE BASIC IDEA
The synopsis for Night At The Museum 2 looks something like this: “Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is now head of Daley Devices, a company he founded to manufacture his inventions. These inventions, including the Glow-in-the-Dark Flashlight, were created from his experiences as a former night guard. He finds that the American Museum of Natural History is closed for upgrades and renovations, and the museum pieces are moving to the Federal Archives at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. On the last night, Larry meets the museum pieces such as Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), Rexy the Tyrannosaurus Skeleton, and Dexter the Monkey and finds out that several exhibits, including Teddy, Rexy, the Easter Island Head, and Ahkmenrah (Rami Malek) are not moving to The Smithsonian Institution – the other exhibits will no longer be animated. The next night, Larry gets a call from Jedediah (Owen Wilson), saying that Dexter stole the tablet, and that Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria), Ahkmenrah’s older brother, is attacking them. Larry takes a plane to Washington and visits the National Air and Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Castle to find the Federal Archives with the help of his son Nick (Jake Cherry).”
THE GOOD
I am a huge fan of Hank Azaria. I think the man has some of the best comedic timing in the business today and consistently shines in even mediocre movies. Movies like “America’s Sweethearts”, “Run Fatboy Run”, “Mystery Men” and even in a smaller role in “Dodgeball” give him perfect platforms to really shine, and his role in Night At The Museum 2 is no exception. Playing the main villain, Kahmunrah, Azaria also ends up being the funniest part of the film and consistently the most entertaining element as well. Every moment he’s on screen in this movie you’re smiling. Shame they didn’t have him on screen for more of it… it would have been a better movie.
The visual effects are just fantastic. This movie need to look great if it hopes to pull off that sense of awe and wonder off seeing these exhibits coming to life, and on that level the film succeeds tremendously.
Amy Adams is adorable. At first I have to admit that I found her character (Amelia Earhart) rather annoying with the way she talked and carried herself… but after a few minutes she really starts to grow on you.
THE BAD
Unfortunately, aside from Hank Azaria there just aren’t many laughs in the movie. Yes there are a load of “cute” moments, but not many laugh out loud moments. Now keep in mind that I’m saying this as an adult. The kids in the theater seemed to eat up the slapping monkeys… so, whatever.
The actual full title of the movie is Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian… and the actual “Battle of the Smithsonian was really lame. I’m going to go into SPOILER territory here… so be warned if you want to read the rest of this paragraph: The big plan of Hank Azaria was to bring forth his undead legions to take over the world… but when he finally opens the gates only about 30 come out… and they all run away the moment Abe Lincon walks in… that’s the big climax of “The Battle Of The Smithsonian”… the whole movie built up to that lame moment. Very lame. Very lame indeed.
Far too many eye rolling moments. Some things aren’t “cute”, they’re just lame. Beat boxing Jonas brothers flying cherubs… dancing singing Einstein dolls… the aforementioned slapping monkeys… the list goes on and on.
OVERALL
In general, Night At The Museum 2 is a pretty cute and at times entertaining movie with terrific effects and some good imagination that could have been a lot better with more effective humor and less of the painful eye rolling moments. Not a bad movie, but not one I’d be running out to see again either. Overall I give Night At The Museum 2 a 5.5/10.
How my earlier posted clean message at 21-Jul-2011 is being deleted here?
I shall repost the message with suitable editing to avoid author’s right to edit / delete.
I am awed with the concept for the film created and the character and creature appeared on the movie. It took me to historical period and I lived with them for 1.5-2 hours. It’s not a comic movie though it bring you laughs at times, it is a movie about inherent desire to live forever in freedom that was exhibited lively. Grateful thanks to the Director, Producer, Every one who took part on this film for making me and anyone who viewed this movie to a life of never returnable days of our ancient(s) and forefathers.
I am very perplexed to know what Mr. Teddy, who ride on the Horse wanted to say about happiness, as I could not watch it continuously at first time, and when I see him at the second watch / time, I am inspired by his majesty and words, physical exercise, his becoming again to exhibits is affected me internally as I slightly had this feeling at first watch when sunrised. In fact, I lived with this movie and mixed with all of them. Hence, I searched the internet to know more about this movie / film, thankfully I found your blog and your all comments.
Think yourself, how nice this world would be, if all of our ancient(s) and forefather(s) return and never die including us. That would be a wonderful life forever. I wish it should happen!
Thank you, the Director, and Mr. Teddy (Theodore Roosevelt), you are great and inspiring me with your exhibit and words!
I give the director a lot of credit. I hope he makes another movie in which Amelia does turn to human and Larry and Amelia spend the rest of thier life together both with the exhibits in both of the museums out together. If this does happen I think it would complete the bonding relationship between Amelia and Larry as they both love eachother
Good movie, I thought that Amelia should of been able to turn human or at least stay with Larry. It would have made the movie have a better ending. I think there should be another movie in which Amelia and Larry have more adventures with thier everlasting love and the Smithsonian exhibits join with the Metropolitan exhibits
Personally, I loved it, I thought it was hilarious, and an improvement on the first one as far as acting and action go. I am not a Ben Stiller fan, and I didn’t like him very much in either of the movies, but the supporting cast for the first one was terrific, and for this one, even better. All the coolest characters from the first one were brought back, but the not so cool characters, were left out of the story. I thought the story didn’t match up as well in the second as the first one. A few things, 1) Why would Daley leave his job as a watchman in the first place? It seemed like he didn’t even care. 2) I loved Abe Lincoln’s character, but it seems to me like the Lincoln memorial should not be effected by the tablet, because it’s outside the museum. All in all though, I loved the special effects and the humor for the most part, and kids love it, as well as adults because of the great cast, so I am going to give it a 8.5/10.
Meh… I definitely won’t be going to the theaters or the rental store, not even for the first one. The concept of the first one sounded a lot like a large scale version of The Indian in The Cupboard. Not to dis on that classic, but it feels like there’s no originality in this.
overall i thought that night at the museum 2 was a great film i give the funny film a 10 out of 10.
owen wilson, jonah hill and the cookie monster were the funniest out but there was an even funnier it was the great monkey Dexter and his freind Able they were the best.
I give Night At The Museum 2 a 2 out 10.
This movie is awful.
Imagine that……Monkeys can out act Ben Stiller.( and get more laughs)
Who said they “out acted” him?
John said the children laughed at slapping monkeys. They could have put slapping monkeys in Schindler’s List and kids would have laughed.
This has no reflection on Stiller.
If I had kids, I wouldn’t take them to see Schindler’s List even if it had slapping monkeys in it.(Schindler’s List is a favorite of mine thought, tied with Pan’s Labyrinth as favorite film)
I won’t see it till it comes out on DVD. The only reason I would see it in the theaters is for Amy Adams.
I was suprised I quite liked the first movie. Was good spirited and fun. Don’t know if I agree with you that it should be more funny though, to me it felt more like the kind of dorky kids adventure film you’d get in the 80s. Not a comedy, but had funny moments and funny scenarios (like the Goonies or something).
Will probably see this one with the same mindset.
So the monkey steals the tablet? I still a little confused bout the plot.
I have to say that while I agree with your score of a 5.5 I have to say it’s for just about the complete opposite things. I just detested Hank Azaria in this film. I love the man but I thought he was allowed to go on far to long and just wished he would get off the screen most of the time. I really enjoyed the enstiens and flying cherubs at least the first time they showed up anyway. I will agree that Amy adam was really good and for me she was the best thing about the film.
5.5 is pretty generous. I would give it a 4.
Amy Adams was the best thing about this film. She stole the show, acting wise. She got a lot of cheesy dialogue to work with, but she made the lines so believable.
Another person who I enjoyed, was Jonah Hill, who only had a cameo. His scene involved no CGI, no art characters, just a scene with him and Stiller talking. It was the best scenes in the whole film and was written so well. Owen Wilson was also another actor who surprised me. I wasn’t expecting anything from him at all, but he has some hilarious scenes too.
Ben Stiller didn’t shine at all. He seemed bored most of the time and didn’t bounce well off of most characters. The kid who played Larry’s son was pointless. The film could of worked without him. He was distracting and annoying.
I really didn’t like how some characters broke character. The appeal of jokes in this film came from the characters personality delivering the lines, but sometimes a character from history would break character so much, you forget they are this famous person in history, but a completely new character that has been made up just to get a crappy joke in there. The scene with Jonah Hill was written so well, I wish that flow kept going throughout the film.
Jonah Hill was hilarious in it….I agree with you 100%…I was hoping he’d comeback for more scenes….but nope…
I think they felt they had to put the son in the story because of the first film but then again…as you said…it was a bit unnecessary…
As for the Jonah’s Brothers as cupids…..ouch….nuff said
I think Ben Stiller was a lot better in the first movie because everything was coming to life around him for the first time. He can act freaked out so well, but not here.
Here he waltzes around like it’s no big deal.
There were too many pauses for character introduction, which is all the movie had to offer. None of the characters had depth and the story seemed shallow. But hey ! here comes someone else you may recognize from history so who cares…? it’s cute and fun !
Didn’t look that good, i’m not that surprised. Hmm…not many laughs in the film? Figures
Hmm. It certainly looked funny. I’ll wait for dvd. I also love Azaria. He’s brilliant. The scene with Darth Vader in the trailer was enough to make me wanna see the movie.
the part with vader is pretty funny
Night At The Museum is such a great concept but why is it that comedies have so few funny moments? I wish they would employ more comics when writing the scripts… but it seems the idea is to go for cute instead of funny.
Great Review, but I think I’ll wait for the dvd to check this one out.
love the movie seeing new people like darth vader lol love it