Night at the Museum was a great movie, it had great comedy, was pretty creative, and was an all-around enjoyable film. When I found out a sequel was coming out I was pretty unsure. I mean, how could they make a great sequel to Night at the Museum?...
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Night at the Museum was a great movie, it had great comedy, was pretty creative, and was an all-around enjoyable film. When I found out a sequel was coming out I was pretty unsure. I mean, how could they make a great sequel to Night at the Museum? My question remains unanswered.

Night at the Museum 2 is about all the stuff from the museum from the first movie being put in the Federal Archives under the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Larry (the old night guard) goes to save them when he finds out that the beloved miniatures and wax figures are in trouble: Kamenrah (Akmenrah's brother) wants to take over the world by getting back the tablet (the one that brings everything to life) and unleashing his army of the underworld. (SPOILER ahead) Long story short, he unleashes his underwhelming 'army' or guys with bird heads (about 10 or 15 guys... ooh, we're in trouble) and gets defeated by the Abe Lincoln statue. The rest in between is basically a bunch of chase scenes and... yep, more stuff coming to life.

The whole museum coming to life thing was cool in the first movie, but after seeing it again, it feels like a very tired concept. They stretched it a little too far this time, and even early on they seemed to be fishing for some decent jokes. Actually, the movie wasn't even that funny. The focus shifted to the story pretty early on, which isn't a great idea when the story isn't the best part of the movie. Kamenrah's lisp was over used too, I mean sure it was funny for the first 30 seconds but after hearing conversation after conversation after evil, maniacal, plotting conversation... it just isn't funny any more. Ben Stiller still did a good job acting his part out, but they really didn't give him many good lines. He did what he could with his part, really, but he wasn't given much to begin with.

To sum it all up, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is an ok movie that just strays from what it should do best. I wouldn't say it's disappointing because I expected very little of it to begin with, but I would say it's a letdown to the first movie. Pass this one up and watch the first one, even if you've seen it before it's worth watching it again for the fifth time over seeing this one for the first time.

Score: 6/10