Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian Review


From when I heard about this movie I didn’t have hope for it, yes Ben Stiller is an actor I like a lot. But it took a while for the first one to grow on me, and being the sequel it USUALLY isn’t as good as the first I doubted this one would break that almost golden rule. Sadly this is true and there are definitely moments I could do without, but there are some moments I like.

First off I like Ben Stiller and when you give him room to improvise it gets fun, especially when it comes to his wit and timing. OMG the scene with Jonah Hill was funny, Jonah Hill is in the movie a lot less than he and the others involved seem to promote he is. There is a ton of characters in this film, I especially am a fan of Robin Williams as Theodore Roosevelt and there wasn’t much of him but it was fun when it happened. Abe Lincoln was funny in this too. But the biggest highlight of the movie to me is the supporting character Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart, she portrayed a very believable version of Amelia Earhart and the chemistry between her and Stiller worked okay. I was a bit dodgy with the love interest somewhat because she’s a damn figurine, probably not anatomically correct. Damn, there was a lot of special effects in this movie. The Jonas Brothers as the Cupids was also funny, and they poke fun at the love interest as well.

Having said all these good things I will say this, the idea is to at first get the museum “folks” back, but then turns into this think against Hank Azaria’s character as Ahkmenrah’s brother Kah Mun Rah for most of the movie. Why is this a problem? BECAUSE I HATED HANK AZARIA’S PERFORMANCE! Look I love his work on the Simpsons but I don’t know if he was trying to replicate his brother’s accent or purposefully being homophobic in his mannerisms. Whatever it is he was annoying, and his villain cronies like Al Capone, Napoleon etc. didn’t impress me in the least. BOOORING it was to watch them, however there was this one scene where these straggler villains were rejected, that made me laugh for a second but god what an otherwise lame villain lineup. I also have to say while some CGI was good; others seemed to be there just to show off. The Octopus was unnecessary, but the cupids were funny as hell. The balloon animals were unnecessary…geez why bother separating good from bad? There was too much special effects, we’re in a recession and you’re firing 80,000 dollar fireworks every ten minute in this movie.

Overall I will have to watch this movie like I do every other movie several more times when it’s on TV constantly and I’m bored. But I’m sure I’ll stand firm that this sequel failed to be as good as the first one. This movie is forgettable sadly, and it’s mostly because of Hank Azaria’s performance and the fireworks display of special effects.

Overall I give this 2 out of 5

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