Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian is the follow up to Ben Stiller’s 2006 comedy/adventure film Night at the Museum. This sequel comes with a bigger budget, a much larger cast, more special effects, and a lot more adventure. Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian is a very charming, albeit silly movie that everyone in the family will enjoy.
Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian begins several years after the first with Ben Stiller’s character Larry Daley returning to the museum to find that some of its inhabitants are either being thrown away or shipped off to the Smithsonian. Also sent to the Smithsonian is the tablet that brings the figures to life once the sun goes down. One of those figures is Kahmunrah, brother to pharaoh king Ahkmenrah. Kahmunrah is pissed and wants to use the tablet to raise an army from the underworld in an effort to seek global domination. Larry is notified of this and rushes to D.C. With the help of a host of new characters, they work to stop Kahmunrah.
Highlights
Ben Stiller returns here with his classic brand of humor and snappy dialogue. He continues to do well in these family friendly films. Cast opposite him for most of the film is Amy Adams and her brand of cute fits very well alongside Ben. Hank Azaria as Kahmunrah is the worst part of this movie and every scene that he’s in is just awful. His poor attempt at playing a bad guy with a lisp is rarely funny and really distracts from the rest of the film. The forced romance between Ben Stiller and Amy Adams is also distracting and would do better if left out altogether. The rest of the cast is awesome although they are rarely seen on screen and are more present in what was left on the cutting room floor.
Special Features
This 3 disc collection contains the Blu-ray movie disc, standard DVD movie disc, and digital copy disc. After seeing the digital copy done via download certificate by other studios, I’m finding these additional discs wasteful for this purpose. The transfer is pretty crisp but some of the special effects look fake in the high-def format. The giant octopus looks really bad as well as many of the scenes with the miniatures. The sound is top notch and that’s to be expected for a Fox Blu-ray. The occasional booms will push your speakers, but they are a little rarer in this film.
Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian contains an enormous amount of special features, all of which are crammed on the first Blu-ray disc. Included are: commentary by director Shawn Levy as well as additional commentary by writers Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, the Scavenger Hunt Mode (allows you to play the common seek and find game throughout the film as “Easy” or “Hard”), The Curators of Comedy: Behind-the-Scenes of Night at the Museum 2, Historical Confessions: Famous Last Words, Directing 201: A Day in the Life of Director/Producer Shawn Levy, Cavemen Conversations: Survival of the Wittiest, Museum Magic: Entering the World of the Photograph, Secret Doors and Scientists: Behind-the-Scenes of the American Museum of Natural History, Phinding Pharoah, Show Me the Monkey featurettes, The Jonas Brothers in Cherub Bootcamp, Deleted Scenes, Gangster Levy, Gag Reel, Fox Movie Channel Presents: Making a Scene, Fox Movie Channel Presents: World Premiere and additional trailers. Whew.
Most of the behind the scenes features seem to overlap in their content and provide the same information only presented differently. Several of the deleted scenes showcase the more minor characters, like Al Capone, Ivan the Terrible, and Napoleon Bonaparte that we miss out on in the main feature. Cavemen Conversations is ridiculous and doesn’t really serve any point but provide some fast low-brow humor. The Scavenger Hunt Mode is an entertaining game to play with kids as you watch the film, featuring both “Easy” and “Hard” modes. The Jonas Brothers in Cherub Boot Camp is by far the best of the lot. Clearly a joke, this short feature explains what the JB went through to play the voice parts of the Cherubs. Watching Shawn Levy put them through hell is insanely funny and easily the most memorable of the features.
Overview
Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian has a ton of charm that all ages will love. The transfer is excellent and the sound is also great. The fact that they packed all those features on one disc is proof that it can be done on Blu-ray. Other than Hank Azaria’s annoying performance and the forced love story, Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian is a really great and fun family movie. The Blu-ray version is a great addition to any collection.
ComicsOnline gives Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian on Blu-ray 4 out 5 Custer’s last stands.
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