Night at the Museum 2 Review

Information: I like to catch the latest showings of new films at the cinéma, it combines both my love of film and hatred of small children wonderfully.

Problem: Night at Museum 2 had the latest showing at the cinéma.

I guess I'm reviewing a film intended for small children, again. Fuck.

As it's name would imply, Night at the Museum 2 is a thoroughly unnecessary sequel to 2006's Night at Museum (Ben Stiller, Ricky Gervais and Steve Coogan) in which the exhibits in the American Museum of Natural History come to life in the dead of night. The original was a cute little concept, pulled off fairly well, which turned a massive profit. Sequel time!

So what can you expect from the sequel? The same film. Sure there a few differences here and there (example: Ben Stiller isn't confused at the beginning and the exhibits are. This leads to some quote-unquote “hilarious” role reversal sequences) but the premise is the same, the cast is mostly the same and the plot's same bar a gimmick or two.

Don't get me wrong: Night at the Museum 2 is definitely an improvement. The special effects are better, the script is funnier and the acting is better but it's missing originality. Gone are the thrills experienced when the exhibits came to life, gone is the sense of immediacy and danger created by the unknown and gone is the humour derived from simple everyday situations. I imagine, then again I have a mental age higher than 12.

So overall, Night at the Museum 2 is a very good children's film, provided the children watching it haven't seen the first film. They might get it mixed up with the DVD. When will Hollywood learn? We don't go to the cinéma to watch the same plots unfold with better special effects, as an audience we crave one thing and one thing only: originality.

I guess I'm being too hard on this film because I wanted to watch the new Star Trek film so I could hear dialogue I've heard one thousand times with prettier battles. I'm aware of the hypocrisy.

8/10