Psycho's Movie Reviews #176: Night At The Museum 2 (2009)

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, or simply Night at the Museum 2, is a 2009 American fantasy comedy film written by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, produced by Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan and Shawn Levy and directed by Levy. The film stars Ben Stiller in the lead role, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Hank Azaria, Christopher Guest, Alain Chabat, Jon Bernthal and Robin Williams. It is the second instalment in the Night at the Museum series, following the original film. The film was released theatrically on May 22, 2009 by 20th Century Fox. Like its predecessor, it received mixed reviews and became a box office success by grossing over $413 million on a $150 million budget, which was less than its predecessor.

Plot

Three years after the events of the first film, Larry Daley, former night guard at the American Museum of Natural History, now runs his own direct response television company that sells inventions based on his museum experiences. After work one day, he stops by the museum, where Dr. McPhee tells him that most of the exhibits are being moved to the Federal Archives at the Smithsonian Institution, being replaced with holographic information providers. Larry spends one last night with his exhibit friends. Shortly before dawn, Teddy Roosevelt tells Larry that the Tablet of Ahkmenrah would be staying as one of the only original exhibits at the museum, along with Teddy, Rexy, and Ahkmenrah himself. All of the other exhibits going to the Smithsonian (including the Huns, Neanderthals, miniatures, Sacagawea, and Dexter) would therefore lose the ability to come to life at night. After the exhibits are moved the following day, Larry surprisingly receives a phone call from Jedediah, who informs him that the monkey Dexter stole the tablet and took it to the Smithsonian, bringing the exhibit there to life as well. Hearing sounds of fighting and chaos as someone pulls Jed away from the phone, Larry travels to Washington, DC, and navigates his way to the archives while posing as a night guard, with external help from his son Nick.

As it is still daytime, Larry finds his friends trapped in their shipping container while under attack from the army of Ahkmenrah's evil older brother Kahmunrah. Larry attempts to pry the tablet out of Dexter's hands, but right as he gets it, the sun goes down, the tablet activates, and the exhibits in the Smithsonian come to life again. Kahmunrah locks Larry's friends in the shipping container and reveals his plans to use the tablet's powers to conquer the world. However, Larry escapes with the aid of a gigantic octopus and a wax model of General George A. Custer, although the latter is captured and imprisoned with Larry's friends. Then, a wax model of the adventurous Amelia Earhart becomes Larry's travelling companion around the museum as they try to figure out a way to rescue the others. The two evade Kahmunrah's army, eventually trapping them in the photograph of V-J Day in Times Square. Meanwhile, Kahmunrah enlists a trio of evil historical leaders — Ivan the Terrible, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Al Capone — to help capture Larry and retrieve the tablet. Jedediah and Octavius escape the shipping container, but Jed is re-captured and placed in an hourglass while Octavius manages to make it outside. Kahmunrah is unable to open his Gate of the Underworld without the tablet, so he gives Larry and Amelia an hour to translate it, otherwise he will kill Larry and his friends, starting with Jed trapped in the hourglass. Larry and Amelia's friendship increases to the point where she develops a crush on him and ends up kissing him as three flying sculptures of Cupid look on while singing love songs.

Larry and Amelia decide to go to the National Air and Space Museum to find help, briefly encountering the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial, who confuses them for a couple. Meanwhile, Octavius makes it to the White House in an attempt to get help, but he is dragged away by a squirrel. Inside the Air and Space Museum, Larry has to ground all of the aircraft and rockets from taking off, before a group of Albert Einstein bobbleheads inform him that the combination he is looking for is the value of pi. Amelia tries to convince Larry for them to be a couple, but Larry struggles to tell her the truth that she is made of wax, so they cannot be together. Napoleon, Ivan, and Capone's troops arrive, prompting Larry and Amelia to escape using the Wright Flyer. They crash the plane into the Smithsonian, where Kahmunrah uses the acquired combination to summon an army of Horus warriors. However, Octavius arrives and interrupts the process, having tamed the squirrel. Kahmunrah scoffs due to his small size, but then Octavius reveals that he did bring help as the statue of Lincoln crashes in through the window and frightens the warriors back into the Underworld. Lincoln cryptically reminds Larry that "a house divided against itself cannot stand," and then returns to the Memorial.

As a frustrated Kahmunrah orders his allies to kill Larry and Jed anyway, Amelia gathers an army of allies including Larry's friends, Custer, and the other museum exhibits they had encountered, leading to a climactic battle. At first, Kahmunrah's alliance is too powerful, and Larry finds Custer hiding behind a pile of treasure, ashamed that he led Larry's friends to another tragic defeat like the Battle of Little Big Horn. However, Larry persuades him to forget the past and fight for his new friends now. As Octavius rescues Jedediah, the tide of the battle starts to turn back in their favor. Larry obtains the tablet, and devises a plan to stop Kahmunrah. Inspired by Lincoln's quote, Larry sparks a disagreement between Capone, Bonaparte, and Ivan, causing them to brawl amongst themselves. Larry attempts to escape, only to be cut off by an angry Kahmunrah, brandishing a khopesh. After a brief yet dramatic scuffle between Kahmunrah and Larry, armed with his flashlight, Amelia eventually manages to use the tablet to open the gate, and Larry defeats Kahmunrah and banishes him into the Underworld.

Amelia flies Larry and the New York exhibits back home. Even though Larry does love Amelia, they both know she has to leave, knowing she will become dust before reaching the Smithsonian. However, the two share a final kiss before she takes off.

Two months later, Larry sells his company, donating the money to the museum to renovate it and keep it open later into the night. All of the exhibits remain, capable of moving about at night under the pretence of being animatronics or hired re-enactors. Larry is rehired as a night guard and aids a woman named Tess who resembles Amelia during the debut of the museum's new extension of visiting hours.

Production

Development

Writers Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon confirmed to Dark Horizons that they were writing a sequel to Night at the Museum, originally with the tentative title Another Night at the Museum. The writers said that "there'll be existing characters and plenty of new ones."

20th Century Fox announced that the sequel, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, would be released during Memorial Day weekend in 2009. Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais, Patrick Gallagher, Jake Cherry, Rami Malek, Mizuo Peck, Brad Garrett and Robin Williams would return for the sequel, with Shawn Levy returning as director.

The film was mostly filmed in Vancouver and Montreal with some scenes filmed in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. A scene was shot at the Lincoln Memorial on the night of May 21, 2008. Scenes were also shot at the American Museum of Natural History in New York on August 18 and 20, 2008.

The trailer was released with Bedtime Stories, Yes Man and Marley & Me in December 2008. The trailer accompanied the film Bride Wars in January, The Pink Panther 2 in February, and Dragonball Evolution in April 2009. The film was also promoted as an opening skit on American Idol, where a replica of the Idol judge seats are being held at the real Smithsonian Institution.

An alternate ending included on the DVD and Blu-ray releases featured the return of Dick Van Dyke as Cecil Fredericks, Bill Cobbs as Reginald, and Mickey Rooney as Gus.

Night at the Museum label on the Wright Flyer exhibit in the National Air and Space Museum.

Filmmakers loaned the Smithsonian Institution props used in the movie which were displayed in the Smithsonian Castle including the pile of artefacts featured in the film. The Smithsonian also made a brochure available online and at museum visitor service desks outlining where to find artefacts.

As of 2009, numerous artefacts which inspired the movie were on display at Smithsonian Museums along the National Mall. Many of the artefacts are labelled with "Night at the Museum" logos.

Alan Silvestri returned to score the sequel.

Release/Reception/Box Office

A trailer of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian was released on December 19, 2008. The film premiered on May 14, 2009 in Washington, D.C. The film released in UK on May 20, 2009, on May 22, 2009 in United States, and in Japan on August 12, 2009.

Like its predecessor, the sequel has received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 45% "rotten" approval rating, based on 168 reviews, with an average score of 5.17/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian is busy enough to keep the kids interested but the slapstick goes overboard and the special effects (however well executed) throw the production into mania". Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film an average score of 42 out of 100 based on 31 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Despite mixed reviews from critics, most critics praised Amy Adams' and Hank Azaria's performances. Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune awarded the film 3 stars stating that "[Adams]'s terrific -- a sparkling screen presence." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+ stating "Battle of the Smithsonian has plenty of life. But it's Adams who gives it zing." Also, many reviews noted the costume worn by Amy Adams during the movie. Perry Seibert of TV Guide gave the film 2 stars despite honouring that "thanks to Azaria, a master of comic timing. His grandiose, yet slightly fey bad guy is equally funny when he's chewing out minions as he is when deliberating if Oscar the Grouch and Darth Vader are evil enough to join his team. Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter and A.O. Scott of The New York Times enjoyed both performances.

One critic panned the movie on its excessive use of special effects as noted by Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club when he described the film as "a baffling master plot and a crowded pileup of special effects in search of something to do." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times awarded the film 1½ stars out of 4 claiming "its premise is lame, its plot relentlessly predictable, its characters with personalities that would distinguish picture books."

In CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

At the end of its box office run, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian earned a gross of $177 million in North America and $236 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $413 million against a budget of $150 million.

On Friday, May 22, 2009, its opening day, the film's estimated gross was $16 million, for second day the film grossed $20 million and for third day the gross was $19 million, coming in ahead of Terminator Salvation (which released on Thursday) in 4,096 theatres at No. 1, reaching up to $54.1 million, with a $13,226 per-theatre average over the Memorial Day weekend. By comparison, Night at the Museum reached up to $30 million on its opening weekend in December 2006. For its second weekend, the film grossed $24.35 million, for third weekend $14.6 million.

For the opening weekend of May 22, 2009 the film grossed $49 million while playing in theatres of 56 territories; the film debuted in UK ($6.6 million), Russia ($5.23 million) and France ($5.05 million). The largest market in other territories being UK, Japan, Germany, Australia and France where the film grossed $32.8 million, $21.49 million, $18.78 million, $14.03 million and $13.3 million.

Budget $150 million

Box office $413.1 million

My Review

Just like its predecessor, this movie is perfectly entertaining and fun to watch for the entire family. It's a clean, humorous and adventurous movie that of course by no means is a great one though.

You really shouldn't over-analyse this movie, since it's so heavily flawed, especially with its story. It's just a movie you have to enjoy and appreciate for what is is. It has plenty of entertainment value to it, with all of its characters and it's great looking moments.

Thing that this movie has really going for is its budget. Because of its budget the movie can afford to look really impressive, with all of its extensive special effects, that bring all of the museum pieces to life. No, the effects are definitely not perfect looking but for a movie of this sort it's all still quite impressive.

I really like the concept of this movie. It basically just uses the same concept out of the first movie and doesn't change much but if it ain't broke, don't fix it, they must have thought. And I have to say that I can agree on that. The concept of having all kinds of museum pieces coming to life at night works out just great and entertaining, even the second time around. What's especially so great and likable about it, is that they also bring some historical character to life through this concept. I actually think this is a great way for children to learn- and get them interested in history, without making them feel like they are sitting a classroom or reading an history book and without having to drag them against their own will to a real museum. It's the main reason why I also wouldn't mind seeing a third movie, since there are still plenty of historical characters to explore.

Most of the familiar characters from the first movie return in this movie but of course there is also left plenty of room for new ones. It has some entertaining new characters in it, as well as some good villains and a new love interest, played by Amy Adams.

Ben Stiller really restrains himself within his role and actually plays the role more serious instead of comical. It makes him more likable and easier to identify with, as a character, who gets caught up in the middle of all sorts of weird situations. It also makes this movie bearable to those who aren't too big of a fan of Ben Stiller as a comedic actor.

Nothing wrong with this movie as good, simple, clean, family entertainment.

As sequels go, "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" proves the exception to the rule. Director Shaun Levy's ambitious as well as imaginative follow-up to "Night at the Museum" tops the original. One of the reason that it surpasses the first film is the casting. Amy Adams is terrific as Amelia Earhart, and she makes an impact on the movie with her presence. Of course, part of this is due to the historical person that she plays. She exerts a charisma that none of the women had in the first film. Neither Carla Gugino nor Kim Raver possessed this charisma. Moreover, neither shared as much screen time with Stiller as Adams does, and this togetherness helps the film. "Battle" picks up the narrative thread not long after the original, but Larry has finally become a success at what he struggled to be before he landed his night security guard gig at the American Museum of Natural History. Now, he is selling his invention with George Foreman. Everything is looking grand for him until he visits the Museum and learns from Dr. McPhee that certain displays are being shipped to the Smithsonian. Suddenly, all Hell breaks loose and Larry has to take off for Washington, D.C. to the mysterious Tablet of Akmenrah. "Battle" is bigger and better than "Night at the Museum" with higher stakes. 8.9/10