Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
5/23/09
Hollywood love sequels for
two big reasons. The first is that if you loved the original, they
don't need to do much to convince you to pay to see a follow-up.
The other is that even once you're there, you're far more likely to enjoy
an otherwise flawed movie if it takes you back to your fond memories of
a previous adventure of the same characters. I loved the 2006 Ben
Stiller hit Night at the Museum to
pieces and will defend it against all criticism: it's a rock-solid
action comedy for the whole family bursting at the seams with imagination
and creativity. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
is more of a big ol' sandbox in which returning director Shawn Levy and
writers Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon riff on how cool it would be
if its' central conceit was transplanted to the world's biggest museum.
The result is lots of fun on a moment-by-moment basis, but logic and structural
integrity are mostly left in the plastic tray by the metal detector.
Don't make this your first night at the Museum, but if you liked
the original, odds are you'll have a great time once again at this high-spirited
reprise.
Everything's going right
for Larry Daley (Ben Stiller): his inventions have taken off, making
him the owner of his own successful company complete with late-night infomercials
with George Foreman. But the new career has taken him away from his
job as Night Watchman at the New York Natural History Museum, where a magical
tablet causes all the exhibits to come to life at sundown each night.
He hasn't seen his friends in two months when a call from Dr. McPhee (Ricky
Gervais) informs him that a big change is coming: the artifacts are
being boxed up and shipped to the National Archives in Washington so brand
new electronic exhibits can take their places. Only a few, like the
T-Rex in the lobby and Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) on horseback will
remain. Larry joins the gang for one last tour of the museum and
only once they've been boxed up again does the former President tell him
the truth: the tablet is staying in New York. Larry takes this
troublesome news home, where he gets a call from miniature Cowboy Jedediah
(Owen Wilson) in Washington: a rambunctious monkey made off with
the tablet and the gang is under attack from someone named Kahmunrah.
Larry drops his plans for a big sales meeting with Wal-Mart and heads for
the nation's capital, where the National Archives are located under the
Smithsonian Institution. He tricks a guard out of his badge and sneaks
into the Archives where, as the sun is about to set, he finds himself in
possession of the tablet just as Pharaoh Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria) comes
back to life. The evil Pharaoh, the older brother of the New York
museum's Ahkmenrah (Rami Malek), has a plan to use the tablet to raise
his undead army of soldiers and rule the world. But first, he's got
to figure out how to use it, and if Larry doesn't help him, he'll kill
Jedediah, who's imprisoned in an hourglass. It's time for the revived
residents of the Smithsonian to choose sides, with Ivan the Terrible (Christopher
Guest), Napoleon (Alain Chabat) and Al Capone (Jon Bernthal) on Kahmunrah's
team while our heroes get assists from General Custer (Bill Hader) and
Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams). Let the battle begin!
Night at the Museum:
Battle of the Smithsonian is chock-full of cool stuff. With a
seemingly unlimited budget to play with, Levy and his writers give us living
paintings, a walking-talking Lincoln Memorial, an Air and Space Museum
full of flying ships, undead warriors with the heads of birds and a trip
inside the famous WWII kissing soldier photo. I marveled at shots
like the one where a black-and-white Capone interrogates a talking Albert
Einstein bobblehead he's holding by its' hair while modern art statues
walk around behind them: it's amazing how much filmmakers can do
these days. There are delightful cameos from many of the most famous
pop cultural exhibits. While it's already been spotlighted heavily
in the ads, the meeting of Kahmunrah with Darth Vader and Oscar the Grouch
is a hilarious showstopper. Moreso than the first film, this one
is very much a product of Garant and Lennon's sensibilities (as seen in
their films Reno 911: Miami and Balls
of Fire), with much humor being pulled from contrasting the epic and
the lame. Characters' most grave struggles repeatedly break down
into arguments over semantics, like the merits of yelling “attack!” before
attacking or whether Kahmunrah's costume is a dress or not.
The evil Pharaoh epitomizes
this, as played by Azaria in a tour de force that makes use of his tremendous,
rarely exploited range. On the one hand, he's totally believable
making huge pronouncements about ruling the world, while on the other,
his odd, lispy voice and dry manner turn every setback into a “Well, this
is awkward” moment. He leads a strong guest cast, including another
delightful turn by Amy Adams in her screwball comedy mode as the plucky
Earhart. Hader is a hoot as the delusional Custer, and Guest, Chabat
and Bernthal walk that fine line between menace and dorkery perfectly as
the historical villains with whom Kahmunrah aligns himself. Among
a bunch of nifty cameos, 30 Rock's Keith Powell stands out as a
Tuskegee Airman compelled to narrate his squad's every movement.
Ironically, the movie is
so overstuffed with new faces in its' 105 minute running time that the
returning characters other than Larry (once again, Stiller makes a fine
port of calm at the center of this comic chaos) are mostly put on the backburner.
Wilson and Steve Coogan as his pal Octavius get some good moments, and
Williams' couple scenes as Roosevelt are solid, but characters like Larry's
son Nick (Jake Cherry), Sacajewea (Mizuo Peck) and McFee (Gervais seems
quite disinterested in his two scenes) are mostly here just to say they
returned. How on Earth can the filmmakers justify introducing Ahkmenra's
brother, but leaving the nice Pharaoh back in New York and giving them
no scenes together? And what exactly happened to Dick van Dyke, so
widely believed to be reprising his role as the original film's villain
that most newspaper reviews I'm seeing still list him in the cast.
Cutting room floor?
The larger issue that holds
this funny, visually wondrous movie back from the greatness of its' predecessor
is that while it had an airtight grasp on the rules of the tablet and how
the exhibits interacted with the outside world, Battle of the Smithsonian
is content to simply do whatever it thinks will be cool at any given moment.
No thought at all is given to how the outside world will perceive the carnage
left behind at the Smithsonian, or what will happen to all the characters
left there once the tablet is out of range (you'll understand my concerns
here better once you see the ending). Plus, while the relationship
between Larry and Emelia builds to a lovely little scene the equal of anything
in the original, Garant and Lennon can't resist tacking on a little something
more that falls insanely flat. The gravity of the situation peaks
too early, requiring the Pharaoh to simply allow Larry to wander the grounds
for long periods in hopes that he'll figure the tablet out. And while
the action climax of NATM is perfectly laid out and has real epic
scope, the ending here is more a series of character scenes stopping and
starting a lot of people wrestling around in PG-friendly fashion.
Only the final battle between Larry and Kahmunrah has the appropriate comic-epic
feel.
I liked Night at the Museum:
Battle of the Smithsonian, I really did. And I think because
it's better at being creative than it is at telling its' story, I'll probably
get a lot of enjoyable repeat viewings out of it (I doubt I'll ever tire
of that Darth Vader scene). Just go in understanding that it's a
colorful, rickety house built on the solid foundation of an earlier film.
In other words, a typical sequel. |
