Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian Review

After three years of hiatus, the Night at the Museum finally has a sequel. Will it be better than the first?

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian follows Larry Daley a few years after the first movie. He has since became a successful entrepreneur and now owns Daley Devices. One day he is shocked that all the old exhibits are being moved to the U.S. Federal Archives at the Smithsonian Institute. Daley tried to stop the transfer, but fails at the attempt. Soon after his attempt, his museum friend Jedediah calls him pleading him to help them as Dexter stole the Tablet of Ahkmenrah and that Ahkmenrah's older brother Kahmunrah was attacking them for the Tablet. It is now Daley's job to help stop the evil Kahmunrah from his plans!

Compared to the original movie, this is exceptionally a much grander movie. This is emphasized by the fact that this movie was made at the Smithsonian Institute. Furthermore, it is interesting that the creators were able to get a love story going on between the characters of Larry Daley and the fictionalized Emelia Earhart. I think the high points that the movie captured was in the Air & Space section with the Einstein bobbleheads. The ending was quite interesting, in a previous scene Daley drops his BlackBerry cell-phone while being chased by Kahmunrah's men and in the ending, it mocks how Joey Motorola "invents" the cell-phone by cracking open Daley's BlackBerry.

Unfortunately, the movie kind of fell flat when it came to story telling, characters were a bit 2D like the predecessor. It would have been great if they spent more time with developing the characters. Granted, the movie was suppose to happen within a night. However, it would have been a greater adventure story if they were able to span it through multiple nights like they have during the first movie. I also didn't really like the Jonafication by turning the movie into another Jonas Brothers movie as it had them performing several songs including the credits. Yes, I understand that they are huge, but really?

The previous movie definitely had its moments and it's great to see some references of the previous movie has been made to tie the movies together aside from the characters. In the first movie, the gag where Dexter was slapping Daley and vice versa returns. Juvenile yes, but hilarious regardless. This time it's funnier because Dexter was able to get Able to slap Daley.

Ben Stiller's performance is the same as the first movie, was able to capture the adventure moments of the movie. He is indeed a great actor for a movie like this one. His love interest played by Amy Adams makes it quite believable that she is falling for Stiller's character. Robin Williams as always is a captivating actor. Unfortunately, in this movie, he barely had much of a role and would have been a lot better if he had played a central role like he did in the first movie. It was also surprising to see George Foreman in the movie at all introducing Stiller's character's fictional Daley Devices company.

This movie is great as an adventure story and just for laughs. However, if you're looking for a rich and deep story, then you've looked at the wrong place. This movie is just for those who wants the sense of adventure and laugh at the absurdity. That being said, due to the lack of a rich story this movie cannot get a high score.

Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: Adventure, Comedy
Regulatory Rating: G
Publisher: 20th Century Fox