Night at the Museum 2

Night at the Museum 2 is the sequel to Night at the Museum (bet you never worked that one out!), in the original we found out that all the exhibits in New York's Natural History Museum came to life at night, due to the power of the Tablet of Ahkmenrah. Now he's back, but things have changed.

Synopsis

Larry has given up his position of night guard at the museum, and is running a successful company which produces and sells his inventions. His ideas for the inventions have come from his time as a night guard, the over sized dog bone (which he used to keep the T-Rex happy), the unloseable keyring (after the monkey kept pinching his) and the latest gadget, a glow in the dark torch for when you need a torch but it's dark and you can't find one. Because his company has been so successful, he hasn't visited the museum for a few months, when he finally gets there he finds that many of the exhibits are packed up for transportation. After talking to Dr McPhee he finds out the museum is being updated and the exhibits are being changed for more hi-tech devices. Teddy Roosevelt informs Larry that the Tablet of Ahkmenrah is staying in the museum, but they don't realise that Dexter the monkey is listening.

Just as Larry is about to sit down to eat with his son Nicky the phone rings, on the other end is a terrified Jedediah, who tells Larry that Dexter stole the tablet before going back into his box, and all the exhibits stored in the Smithsonian archives have come to life, including Ankmenrah's brother Kahmunrah. Kahmunrah is after the tablet in order to bring back his minions from the underworld and take over the modern world.

Larry decides he has to rectify this and flies off to Washington to retrieve the tablet.

Cast

Ben Stiller as Larry Daley
Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart
Owen Wilson as Jedediah Smith
Hank Azaria as Kahmunrah / The Thinker / Abe Lincoln
Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt
Christopher Guest as Ivan the Terrible
Alain Chabat as Napoleon Bonaparte
Steve Coogan as Octavius
Ricky Gervais as Dr. McPhee
Bill Hader as General George Armstrong Custer
Jon Bernthal as Al Capone
Patrick Gallagher as Attila the Hun
Jake Cherry as Nicky Daley
Rami Malek as Ahkmenrah
Mizuo Peck as Sacajawea

My Thoughts

I was really looking forward to watching this film, because I'd seen the first one, and my children had seen it while it was at the cinema and really loved it, but I was a little disappointed.

The storyline was reasonably good if somewhat unbelievable, although any story about museum exhibits coming to life is going to stretch the imagination some what. The main problem I had with this film was Kahmunrah, or more specifically Hank Azaria who was absolutely atrocious in the role. From what I can gather the character was supposed to be funny with hint of menacing, but the menacing just didn't work and it made Kahmunrah look like a bit of a prat and so you had to wonder what all the fuss was about. I also don't like it when they use speech impediments as a comic prop, people will probably think I'm just being sensitive, but I don't find taking the mickey out of something that causes people a lot of pain in the slightest bit funny.

It also seemed like they'd lowered the special effects budget, because some of the effects, especially when Jedediah and Octavius were in shot were very poorly done, even my son commented on how poor they were. Jedediah and Octavius were my favourites in the original film, and they keep the top stop in this film too, especially Jedediah. Both parts are acted well, and along with Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson is the saviour of the film. As in the first film Ricky Gervais makes me cringe, I really can't stand watching him, and it embarrasses me that the Americans must think he is the best this country has to offer, as in the first film he just plays the same part as he did in The Office.

There were a few laugh out loud moments, but they were very few and far between. I think that the comic value of exhibits coming to life was stretched to the limit, bringing in Darth Vadar and Oscar the Grouch as failed bad guys just shows how far down the barrel they were scraping.

My daughter immediately recognised the Jonas Brothers when they voiced the singing cherubs (agghh just when I thought I'd escaped those guys), but apart from their three little ditties and Ride of the Valkyries, I didn't really notice the rest of the soundtrack.

This is all very negative, and whilst there were a lot of bad points, it was still watchable, and the kids still enjoyed seeing it the second time round, I just wouldn't rush out and buy it.

There were no DVD extras on the DVD at all.