Anibal Ortiz / Roundup
Tangled in a smoke screen of CGI and chaos, Shawn Levy’s lighthearted comedy is packed in tight ¾ really tight. “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” is a family comedy that delivers more awes than laughs.
Levy’s film straddles the rim between the worlds of childhood and adulthood entertainment. Keeping its main focus on children, the film delivers just few laugh-out-loud jokes for adults and will be sure to leave a child ready for bed, having taken in so much from one film.
Ben Stiller returns as Larry Daley, the former security guard at the American Museum of Natural History who is now a successful businessman. In his success Daley has forgotten the more important things in life, evident in the fact he is divorced.
Daley embarks on a journey when his stuffed and waxed museum friends get shipped to the Smithsonian for storing, along with a golden tablet. At the museum, Daley finds his friends trapped in a storage bin being held hostage by Kahmunrah, an ancient evil Egyptian set to rule the world.
Don’t look away too fast though. Soon the movie comes to life and CGI takes over the entire screen.
The villains call the shots while Daley teams up with new allies, including the beautiful Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) to save his friends. Earhart is made out to be a flirtatious and lively woman who is always on the hunt for adventure. On screen, Daley and Earhart begin to develop a liking for each other. Adams does an incredible job of portraying a perky Earhart and takes the spotlight from Stiller throughout the film.
Villains included are the characters of Al Capone, Ivan the Terrible and Napoleon Bonaparte, but let’s not get stuck on them as they had little to no effect on the movie. More noticeable were the two minutes or so that Darth Vader and Oscar the Grouch applied for villain positions.
A final epic battle toward the end provided more laughs than any other part of the film.
However, most of the battle seemed unorganized and poorly planned. Despite the fact battles are meant to get a bit messy, when CGI is involved and characters are specifically placed on the screen, there’s more clarity to expect during battle scenes.
There are plenty of “Why is that there?” moments throughout the film and a lot of humor that doesn’t quite hit the spot.
Levy’s “Battle of the Smithsonian” delivers a mediocre family film that will keep both adults and kids sitting back in their seats for a little less than two hours. The child laughter and occasional chuckle by the older crowd will soon be forgotten along with the film.
(20th Century Fox)
