A common element in successful comedies based on farcical premises is a character whose reaction to the absurd events reflects the reaction of the audience. Think of Bill Murray in Ghostbusters, who wisecracking through battles with ridiculous ghosts let the audience know that the movie knows it is ridiculous. Or almost everyone in Galaxy Quest. Or think Ben Stiller in Night at the Museum. A large part of the charm and humor in that movie was Stiller’s night guard Larry reacting the way anyone would to museum pieces coming to dramatic and sometimes menacing life. With Larry, we got to discover that the T-Rex skeleton doesn’t want to eat him; he just wants to play fetch. The sequel, bearing the clumsy title Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (presumably we could not be trusted to make the connection if it had simply been titled Battle of the Smithsonian) lacks that wide-eyed and panicky discovery of the museum magic and also some of the laughs.
It is a shame that more use wasn’t made of Jonah Hill as a quirky Smithsonian night guard (his appearance in the movie is not even credited). When he asks Larry “like what kind of stuff?” in response to Larry’s melodramatic allusions to the events of the first “Night”, I was really looking forward to Hill’s character getting a first-hand look. Instead, Larry makes what is essentially a repeat of his previous adventures, but without him having to figure out what is going on. Amy Adams and Hank Azaria get the most possible out of their portrayals of Amelia Earhart and a megalomaniacal pharaoh. And there are plenty of clever moments (Rodin’s The Thinker turns out to be a dunce; the bobblehead Einsteins in the gift shop have all the answers; Bill Hader’s General Custer is a lousy tactician) that make this movie a fun diversion if not as originally clever as the original.