Review: Night at the Museum II

Night at the Museum II
Directed by Shawn Levy
Starring Ben Stiller, Amy Adams and Owen Wilson

Blockbuster season is hit and miss at the best of times, and Night at the Museum II falls firmly into the latter category. A follow-up to 2006’s wildly successful Night at the Museum, numero duo is sub-titled Battle of the Smithsonian in the United States though this title has apparently been dropped in Australia.

While II is numerologically accurate, Battle of the Smithsonian gives a more complete picture of what audiences are in for. Specifically, a plot not dissimilar the first film but set in a different museum – the hallowed halls of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington.

A couple of years after the events of the first film, former night guard Larry Daley (Stiller) is now a successful entrepreneur flogging tacky wares like a glow-in-the-dark flashlight.

He’s so preoccupied he hasn’t visited the Museum of Natural History for months, and by the time he does he discovers that curator Dr. McPhee (Ricky Gervais) is sending most of his old friends to be archived at the Smithsonian in favour of fancy new digital displays.

Having smuggled the life-giving Tablet of Akmenrah onboard, all hell breaks loose when the exhibits arrive at the Smithsonian. Among the newly awakened is Kah Mun Rah (Hank Azaria), Akmenrah’s evil older brother who plans to use the tablet to open the door to the underworld.

Assisted by aviation pioneer Amelia Earheart (Adams), American Civil War icon General Custer (Bill Hader) and a bunch of old and new faces, Larry must put a stop to Kah Mun Rah’s dastardly deeds before it is too late.

Night at the Museum II exists firmly in the franchise ‘sweet spot,’ being a similar enough take on the first film to please all comers while upping the ante with a number of new historical figures.

Amelia Earheart is the best of the bunch, with Amy Adams giving her a spunky, screwball edge. Hank Azaria is chafingly camp, and Bill Hader’s take on Custer as a cowardly, preening airhead is distasteful, if not woefully inaccurate.

It’s ironic that a film overtly criticising the impedance of technology on learning should be rife with historical half-truths and misrepresentations. The script takes the easy way out on numerous occasions, introducing wacky characters and distractions to paper over the barely-there plot.

About the only attention-grabber is Amy Adams’ skin-tight jodhpurs. Kids will probably enjoy it, but anyone under the age of twelve is hardly a trustworthy barometer. Neither is anybody else who likes this film, for that matter.

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