Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009)

Director: Shawn Levy
Story: Thomas Lennon
Cast: Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Hank Azaria, Owen Wilson, Robin Williams 
Music: Alan Silvestri
Time: 105 minutes
Bottom-line: Was interesting the first time… not so much now

Shawn Levy directs the second installment of the Night at the Museum series. Again, like the first part, the children may find this film interesting, but adults mostly will not. The story is almost exactly the same as the first part. However, there are tons of jokes and funny dialogues to keep the audience entertained, but this part is still never as good as the first, except in terms of acting.

Larry Daley (Stiller) becomes CEO of Daley Devices. Being busy with work, he is unable to visit his friends at the museum. When he revisits the museum two years later, he finds out through his boss, Mr. McPhee (Ricky Gervais), that all the artifacts have been stored in the Federal Archives at Smithsonian Institution, and they are going to be replaced with holographic equipment. So, he decides to bring back all the objects. When he reaches the archive, he finds all his old friends: Jed (Wilson), Teddy (Williams), Octavius (Steve Coogan) and the others. However, he also learns that Akhmenrah’s brother, Kahmunrah (Azaria), is threatening all the exhibits. He wants control of the tablet of Akhmenrah, so that he can raise an army from the underworld. He captures Larry’s friends and asks him to find the tablet before an hour. He is accompanied on the search by Amelia Earhart (Adams), who gets attracted to Larry. The rest of the film is whether or not Larry is able to save his friends, and whether or not Kahmunrah succeeds in releasing the army from the underworld.

Stiller reprises his role as Larry Daley

The new villain: Hank Azaria as Kahmunrah

As I said, this film shows almost the exact same incidents as the first one, with a new villain and a new heroine this time. This is like The Hangover: Part II, in the sense that it is pretty much a copy of the first part of the film, but with a new setting. Stiller, Owen Wilson, Williams and few others reprise their roles in the second film as well. The new villain is the brother of Akhmenrah, Pharaoh Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria). The new heroine is Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams).

Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart

The main reason that the second film was a disappointment was because the idea becomes ‘used’. Seeing everything in a museum come to life worked well in the 2006 film, but when you show the same thing three years later, the surprise and comic tension are not quite there. Here, when all the objects come to life, you are like 'Yeah, so?', whereas in the first part, you would have been a lot more surprised. The only things new about this film are the jokes. I admit, some of the jokes in the second film are better than the ones in the first. But as I said, the comedy comes only from dialogues in this film, and not from the story itself.

Napoleon (Alan Chabat), Al Capone (John Bernthal)
and Christopher Guest as Ivan the Terrible, at the
right, centre and left respectively

Amelia’s character is kind of irritating: always nagging Larry, continuously talking etc. However, her character also adds to the fun. Kahmunrah’s accent and dialogues are very funny. The scene where he instructs Napoleon, Ivan the Terrible and Al Capone, is one of the best scenes in the film. Azaria has acted brilliantly in this film, and he is the source of most of the comedy. It is mostly his jokes, comic timing and his acting, that drive the film.

To conclude, Night at the Museum 2 is an average film in my view. Poor acting by almost everyone, not much innovation in the story and the lack of surprise make this film fall way short compared to the first one; they in fact make this one worse. The only bright spot are the jokes and the brilliant performance of Hank Azaria. Watch the film only for his performance and for plenty of laughs all the way.

My Rating: 2/5
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 43%