Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb

Released 19th December 2014, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb follows Larry Daley as he travels to the London museum to fix Ahkmenrah’s decaying tablet. This film marks the end of the Night at the Museum trilogy and, while it is primarily a comedy, the film does not make an effort to utilise the events of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian which is all the weirder due to the presence of Ahkmenrah’s parents during the narrative (brought to life by Ben Kingsley and Anjali Jay, respectively). While we only see their performances for a brief period, the emphasis on the Egyptian mythos in the previous film are left brutally untapped and serve to diminish the film in the wider franchise; this continuity also spans to Skyler Gisondo as a grown up Nick Daley. As well as giving a laughably bad performance which was bested by Jake Cherry 7 years prior, there are odd lines which contradict prior events; notably while sneaking into the London museum.

Dan Stevens is the new museum character introduced as Lancelot. As a British icon, he is met at the London museum and has a very similar arc to Buzz out of Toy Story in the way that he comes to terms with being a museum statue and he gives a good enough performance in doing so. Ben Stiller still does a good enough job as Larry Daley but just feels less energetic than he did in the previous films (although he is rather comical as Lah the Caveman). One aspect that I do like about the film is that it brings most of the original film’s characters along the journey with Larry which helps send the series off on a high note. For what it is worth, this film makes an effort to highlight the importance of history and its significance in our culture during the final act and it is rather admirable... if not for the humour. I understand that a comedy is supposed to be funny but here is “funny” and then there is breaking the rising tension as you reach the climax for the sake of a cheap gag.

Unfortunately, this film actively attempts comedy and subsequently feels forced and makes the film hard to sit through. Much like the other two films, the visual effects are believable enough (if not a ‘little’ obvious in the miniature environments). Once again Alan Silvestri delivers a great soundtrack and I can actually say that it feels like it’s best version here with softer leitmotif uses and no overzealous opening credits. Overall, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb feels the most conceptually sound of all of the films in the series but fails to reach its full potential through comedic shortcomings which instead render the film as just another mindless American comedy.