Shawn Levy didn't waste any time cobbling together this sequel and though it's not terrible, it's all a bit silly. "Daley" (Ben Stiller) has made his fortune and "McPhee" (Ricky Gervais) is facing the worrying digitisation of his soon to be "interactive" museum. This is going to result in the relocation of some of the exhibits to the Smithsonian where the megalomanic Pharaoh "Kahmunrah" is poised to ally with Ivan the Terrible, Al Capone and Napoleon to form his own little axis of evil. Quickly, it falls to "Daley" and his assembled troop of recently transported, brave, exhibits to thwart this dastardly plan. To be fair, this film does move along well and has retained most of the cast from the first film - Robin Williams as the sagely Teddy Roosevelt and quite a dashing Rami Malek ("Ahkmenrah") as well as adding an enthusiastic performance from Amy Adams as the trail-blazing Amelia Earhart. It's all just a bit overly-theatrical for me, though - especially the really hammy Hank Azaria who just seems to be trying to do his best Robert Downey Jr impersonation of the menacing Pharaoh. It's really just anther vehicle for Ben Stiller to do what he does best, and if that's what you like then there is nothing to disappoint here - he does all that he needs to. For me, it's all just a little lazy with a denouement that offers little by way of jeopardy. It looks good, though, and again reminds us to go visit a museum some time.

The original "Night at the Museum" was by no means a movie of any significance. It was nice to see Hollywood give viewers a little insight into world history (however unintentional it probably was) but the real hook was the wonder of something inanimate coming to life. The characters were a fun group and the interaction with Ben Stiller's Larry Daley generated some laughs. However in "Night At the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" none of that wonder exists. The characters are always "alive" and the whole movie is just a throw everything at the screen and see what sticks approach.

There were so many characters around that none of them had enough screen time to do much of anything. The cast of characters from the first "Night of the Museum" are present but most are around just to give the viewer a comfortable familiarity. They don't have any meaningful to do. In fact this is more a game of name-that-historic-figure than anything else.

We also are subject to lots of Ben Stiller's stammering and stuttering. It's almost gotten to the point where I can say it used to be funny. The conversations between Stiller's Daley and Hank Azaria as Kahmunrah are way too long and generally not funny. Also painfully unfunny time killers were the three Cherubim whose only reason for existence is so the viewer can play "name that voice". Come to think of it this movie is so lazy it doesn't even try to create any new characters.