Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is the sequel to a 2006 film where night watchman Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) sees exhibits come to life via a magic tablet and becomes part of this nocturnal world. New York’s American Museum of Natural History, where Night at the Museum and part of this sequel take place, claims a 20% increase in visitors after the first film was released, particularly among young children whose interest was initiated by the movie. For this reason and for the merchandising potential these family films bring (the history of film merchandising being a fertile topic for a future popular culture blog), the Smithsonian Institution agreed to be involved in the movie.
In this installment Daley, after becoming a successful infomercial product inventor, learns his “friends” at the museum are being crated up for shipment to the Federal Archives, which in the story is a huge repository beneath the National Mall in Washington. For film trivia buffs, this is the second time Stiller has played an infomercial entrepreneur. (The first was Barry Levinson’s 2004 comedy Envy.) In Battle of the Smithsonian, Daley receives a distress call from cowboy Jedediah Smith (Owen Wilson), one of a collection of miniature figures in the menagerie Daley has befriended.
Once in Washington, Daley infiltrates the Smithsonian as a guard and meets up with a new group of animals and artwork who come to life – including antagonist Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria), who wants the magic tablet to rule the world and Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams), who takes a liking to Daley, helps him defeat the bad guys and saves his friends.
The costume and make-up departments give credible treatment to the people of history, and the actors execute well enough. Robin Williams, as President Teddy Roosevelt, gives an appropriately restrained performance. The dialogue ranges from familiar jokes and character stereotyping to a few snippets of real history, such as the introduction of the Tuskegee Airmen. There is enough slapstick comedy to entertain any youngster, but a sea of story conventions could well drown the interest of most adults, causing them to miss the film’s occasional historic facts and touching moments. There are a few clever sequences, such as when Daley, Earhart and some bad guys enter the famous Alfred Eisenstaedt photograph “The Kiss” and interact with V. J. Day revelers in Times Square.
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is the best represented of the institution’s museums in the film. The bright and colorful scenes inside the National Mall facility represent well the breadth of the collection there. That museum’s exterior, the Smithsonian “Castle” and other Washington locations are visually stunning. Beyond these features, there is not much to separate the dizzying special effects and fast-paced hijinks from other movies in the popular fantasy genre. Whether or not Battle of the Smithsonian has any life beyond short-term entertainment and the aiding of  film-inspired museum tie-ins depends on how well parents, teachers and others in the know handle questions from pre-teens about a particular scene or character. If they encourage these youngsters to read, explore and evaluate the real stories behind what the movie portrays, and if the inquiries produce trips to libraries, museums or historic sites, then the movie has some value to museums and the advancement of historical knowledge. Otherwise the monkey slap scene in Battle for the Smithsonian becomes  just another, well, silly monkey slap scene.
Related Articles |
