Cast: Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Hank Azaria, Robin Williams, Christopher Guest, Alain Chabat; Director: Shawn Levy; Producers: Michael Barnathan, Chris Columbus, Shawn Levy, Mark Radcliffe; Screenwriters: Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon; Music: Alan Silvestri; Editor: Dean Zimmerman, Don Zimmerman; Genre: Action/ Adventure Comedy; Cinematography: John Schwartzman; Distributor: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation; Location: Canada; Running Time: 108 min.;Technical Assessment: 3.5
Moral Assessment: 3
CINEMA Rating: For viewers of all ages
The display figures at the Museum of Natural History which magically sprang to life at midnight and befriended the night guard Larry (Ben Stiller) are being packed off to the archives of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington to give way to state-of-the-art museum features. Now a businessman in his own right, Larry decides to travel to Washington to rescue his museum friends from a future of perpetual storage. While trying to free from their packing crates Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams), the miniature cowboy Jedediah (Owen Wilson) and Octavius the Roman general (Steve Coogan, Larry inadvertently resurrects the Egyptian pharaoh Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria). With ambitions of conquering the world Kahmunrah enlists the help of some of history’s meanest characters Al Capone (Jon Bernthal), Napoleon Bonaparte (Alain Chabat), Ivan the Terrible (Christopher Guest), and of court his own bodyguards to wangle from Larry the giant gold keypad that would unleash the pharaoh’s ancient army. So now it’s Kahmunrah and the baddies versus Larry, a reanimated duo, General Custer (Bill Hader) and aviatrix Amelia Earhart.
Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian is be to enjoyed as an entertaining high-tech ouvre that delights the child in the viewer. Talk about a dinosaur’s skeleton jerking back to life, or figures in iconic paintings stepping out the frame and into the real world to interact with Larry and the museum figures—that’s neat. As a rule, credit must be given generously to those working with the computers to bring about these special effects—not only in this movie but for all movies utilizing computer generated images (CGI), which happen to be a dime a dozen nowadays. When it comes to the predictable story, forget about authenticity or historical accuracy; don’t question character development, time boundaries or inconsistencies with what you’ve learned in History Class. Likewise, there’s no point in asking if the pharaoh acted like a pharaoh would in real life, or if Al Capone would have agreed to being recruited by an Egyptian ruler if he had had a chance to.
What is the message of this movie? Or at least the lesson it’s trying to teach the viewer? Well, the viewer can glean the old tale of good versus evil, naughty versus nice, in the plot, but it’s doubtful if director Shawn Levy had aimed to achieve anything more than box-office success for this work. Like any piece of historical fiction (like the Dan Brown potboilers Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons), Night… 2 is merely a product of a hyperactive imagination. Thus, while the story may be spiced with the names or presence of historical figures—people who lived on earth once upon a time—their personalities in this work of fiction remain fictitious, created by the authors, directors, producers, marketers, with their own probably commercial agenda. Watching this movie may give you a feeling that you’re acting like a den mother to a bunch of gung ho kindergarten kids let loose in the park. One thing good about Night…2 is—its humor remains clean from beginning to end. But as a tip for parents: don’t forget to point out to your young children that Larry stole a guard’s badge and uniform to gain entry into the Smithsonian archives. Even with the noblest of intentions, stealing is stealing in any language.
