As promised, albeit a teensy bit late, here’s some thoughts on the third and final(?) installation of the Night at the Museum trilogy.
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb. So what’s it about? Well, as I said, it’s the third and final installation of a trilogy, so it’s really just about the same things as the first two films, only this time the puppets lives(?) are at stake. The tablet of Ahkmenrah, having been given it’s powers from the moonlight, is loosing said powers so night guard Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) has to take the tablet somewhere the moonlight can reach it, and there’s the entire plot of the film. Nothing new, we’ve all seen the exact same plot in several other movies. Even the part where they have to take the tablet to a completely different country (to find out what’s wrong with it) is something we’ve seen before, so I was not at the slightest impressed with the story. Then again, I haven’t really been impressed with this trilogy before so why start now?
Anyway, this time around, the main cast (Stiller, Wilson, Williams, Coogan, Gervais, Malek, Peck) is joined by a distinguished group of actors such as Ben Kingsley as pharao Merenkahre, the father of Ahkmenrah, as well as Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney and Bill Cobbs returning from the first film. The cast is also joined by the always brilliant Rebel Wilson as the English night guard and Dan Stevens as Lancelot, both of which plays somewhat of a pivotal part in the story. Not absolutely necessary parts, but somewhat pivotal none the less. So there’s no doubt about it, this film has the biggest ensemble of cast members of the trilogy and they all do their parts with brilliance, but one can’t seem to feel a bit saddened to see Robin Williams on screen again, given his untimely passing last year, but one thing’s for sure… he did give us a few last laughs and I welcomed them all (Rest well, Robin, we miss you!)!
The movie itself is not better than any of the two before it, but that’s not saying that it was any worse. It’s a third installment of a comedy trilogy, and with that, it did what it was supposed to. As a comedy, it brought a few laughs here and there, not the funniest movie ever made but I did laugh out loud a couple of times. As a final installment of a trilogy, it did bring a decent conclusion to the story within, but it also left a little bit of wiggle room at the end for future installments, which I can see as both a positive and a negative… with the right script and the right director, a continuation of the story of the Tablet of Ahkmenrah could work, but it could also be one of those lazy American Pie-sequels that everybody dislikes. Yeah, I’m talking about Band Camp, The Naked Mile, Beta House and The Book of Love. The world would be a better place without them and chances are, if they were to make a Night at the Museum 4, that it would be just as ridiculous and utterly pointless as aforementioned American Pie-sequels.
I won’t be rambling on anymore about this film, but I’ll leave you with this final grading. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb is well worth the price of admission, not only because of Robin Williams, but much of the reasoning behind me willingly pay to see the film is because of him. So the movie itself gets a Tango’s ‘Stamp of Approval’ but the only reason I’ll be putting it on my shelf is because I need it for my Robin Williams-collection. Next up, here on Tango’s Thoughts, will be my review of Whiplash, so be sure to tune in later on, but until then…..
Tango's Thoughts 