Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian

Cast: Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Robin Williams, Christopher Guest and Steve Coogen.

Director: Shawn Levy

Release Date: 2009

Genre: Adventure/Fantasy

Running Time: 1hr 45 minutes

Rating: PG

Synopsis:

Larry (Ben Stiller) is now a successful businessman who gets back to the museum just in time to save his friends, they all return in this installment to the Smithsonian, where we are introduced to lots of new characters including Amelia Earhart, General Custer and many many more!

Ben Stiller returns in the second installment to "Night at the Museum" this time as a successful businessman, so we've gathered perhaps a couple of years have passed since the first film. All of the the wonderful characters from the first film are back again for another adventure. We're also introduced to some new characters. Amy Adams isn't someone I am that familiar with apart from her most recent role as Miss Lane in "Man of Steel" and "Batman vs. Superman" starring Henry Cavill an Ben Affleck. Needless to say, I think she's come quite far since the making of this film. Shawn Levy is also back again as the director too.

Amy Adams does quite a good job as Amelia Earhart, however her character does come across a bit cheesy, her acting isn't brilliant. Bill Hader however does a great job as General George Armstrong Custer, besides Robin Williams as Teddy he's probably one of the only entertaining characters in this movie. The acting over all isn't come across as great and I'm getting a very cheesy vibe from it all. I can't seem to to take the characters the new characters in particular seriously. I definitely don't think Shawn Levy did as good a job directing this picture as he did the first. I feel like you could relate to the characters in the first film a lot more, they were a lot more entertaining too.  You barely see the original characters actually.

The storyline alone isn't fantastic and the screenplay sounds poorly written, the jokes wern't really that funny and none of the characters seem to have any chemistry with one another, including Amy Adams and Ben Stiller. I found myself laughing quite a bit in the first film, however I am sorry to say that I haven't really laughed once whilst watching this film. I honestly think if they had involved the original characters a lot more, this film would have been a lot more entertaining to watch. I really feel like this film was poorly directed.

The cinematography isn't anything special either, in fact most of the set design is well quite literally just one set, so it's rather boring. There aren't really any wow facts when it comes to set design either, There isn't really a lot to look at it, the use of colours are pretty boring too, too many dark colours. I can't quite comprehend seeing historic characters and Darth Vader in the same feel together either, perhaps I am missing something here, but it just looks daft. It's as if the filmmakers were desperatly trying to make it funny and just failed miserably.

I will praise the costume department though again the costumes do look really cool, I really like what Amy Adam's character Amelia Earhart is wearing, it looks good on her and suits her character and of course the original characters look as good as ever, you know when they are actually on screen....the soundtrack is no where near as good as the first one either, it doesn't tell a story like the first one does, it's just boring.

This movie has practically no storyline, it's a real disappointment to be honest after how good the first films was. I think they could of cast some really great actors in this film but chose not too and those that were fantastic were barely shown on screen which was a complete let down. It'a almost like the movie started off about them and finished on something completely different all together.  Confusing and annoying.

It's a no from me!

2/5 stars