Night at the Museum

It must take a special type of handling to take a film with so much history, culture and fun ideas and produce something this bland, unfunny and completely wastes an amazing cast. The 2006 fantasy comedy, Night at the Museum, doesn’t even look like a movie that would leave too much of an impression despite relatively harmless advertising showcasing a few creative visuals and scenes, but the movie was able to do financially well enough (even becoming the 5th highest-grossing film of 2006) to warrant two more sequels later down the line. Its very hard to imagine why. In Brooklyn, A man named Larry Daley (played by Ben Stiller) is a down on his luck aspiring inventor who is trying to reconnect with his son, Nick (played by Jake Cherry) after a divorce from his wife, Erica (played by Kim Raver) but it doesn’t seem to be working as Nick seems to favour his new step-dad, Don (played by Paul Rudd) far more. Desperate for a job after a bunch of unfunny failures, he finds work as a night guard at the Museum of Natural History, and  although the previous night guard Cecil (played by Dick Van Dyke) along with fellow night guards Gus and Reginald (played by Mickey Rooney and Bill Cobbs) try to warns him of the dangers of the place, he doesn’t fully comprehend what he’s getting into until his first night shift. Although the museum seems regular during the daytime,  everything in the museum comes to life once the sun sets, and all the exhibits run amuck. Larry needs to take control of all the inhabits of the museum and learn how to work with them so they don’t try to kill him, including a miniature cowboy version of Jedidiah (played by Owen Wilson), and a wax version of Theodore Roosevelt (played by Robbin Williams), and upon connecting more with them and discovering that someone might be trying to steal the Golden Tablet of Pharaoh Ahkmenrah (played by Rami Malek), he decides to stick it out, try to convince fellow museum docent, Rebecca (played by Carla Gugino) of the truth behind the museum, and get his work done while surviving the night. Based on a 1993 children’s book of the same name written by Croatian illustrator Milan Trenc,  the idea for this story does have the potential to offer up some fun concepts, but you can feel how minimal the element of story and character was within said book, as everything within this film is as cookie-cutter as it could be and delivers a movie that features so many talented actors, and leaves a giant disappointment in its wake.

Even from most of the advertising, you got the idea that the filmmakers only really cared about the museum itself and what kind of visuals and comedic gags they could pull off in that environment. While that’s understandable and should be thought about when constructing a movie, you also get the idea that everything else surrounding the film was just inserted in as a means of having something to fill time outside of these moments, made even worse with how badly they’re done. Its bad enough that the initial story setup is a generic and standard as these kinds of kid’s films can be (an estranged father trying to reconnect with his son) but it only gets worst when everything about this film is not only painfully boring and predictable, but with how unfunny it is. The initial idea of the museum isn’t a bad idea and creates visuals that could offer some interesting history or fun concepts, like the skeleton of a T-Rex acting like a dog or even seeing a talking Easter Island head are cute for what they are and would work for the kind of story is trying to portray itself as, but the story and humor never mix together, usually overwhelming the other and leaving an uneventful picture. Being in an enclosed environment that features lifeless models of various historical and culture significance that come to life during the nighttime could lead to some fun discussions and even nuggets of history and culture, but the film isn’t smart enough to be able to see this potential, and its made even worse with how despite the story only really having any standing’s as a comedy (as the quote dramatic elements are practically non-existent), every joke delivered is just amazingly unfunny. This script by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon offers nothing humorous for people over 12 years old and younger viewers won’t care enough to keep invested in what little there is to get into. The film’s pacing is very disjointed and poorly handled; literally copying a plot point twice in the middle without much deviation at all, and does start to show how this idea maybe could’ve functioned nicely as a short film or even as little mini animated project where it could’ve focused solely on what the creatives behind the film clearly care about (the museum and the oddities within) without needing to stretch it out with lame cliches, dull characters and poor writing. The film starts off about the father-son dynamic, then spends most of the film dropping that problem to focusing on taking care of the museum, as well other pointless detours involving a cursed tomb, but they stay separate and eventually become forgotten until the climax. The director for this movie was Shawn Levy, who would go on to do better stuff in his future and even some in his past (Big Little Liars is flawed and slightly dated, but not terrible), but his past experience with movies like Just Married, Cheaper by the Dozen and the 2006 Pink Panther film, paints a solid picture of his style of humor and storytelling. The best stuff is when the movie is in the museum, connecting with the weird characters, and even the climax, as stupid and phoned in as it is, offers much more imaginative goofy drama than when the film was trying to be realistic.

The most tragic part about this film is that most of the cast in this film are talented funny people, but most of them are completely wasted here and not given characters that can make them the least bit endearing. This material is impossible to make good, regardless of how strong an actor is, and it only makes it worse when they are reduced to the typical story cliché characters. People like Ricky Gervais and Paul Rudd, despite having personas that are instantly iconic and can make for some very effectively comedic potential, are barely used, and the poor script leaves a completely unmemorable impression, while completely respectable old actors like Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney and Bill Gobs are reduced to complete unfunny punchlines (it honestly feels like a complete insult to waste all three of them like this). Ben Stiller is nothing awful, but at the same time, his performance is so bland that any other actor could have played his role, and nothing would have been altered in the film. He’s a kind of actor that isn’t very diverse in terms of his delivery, usually playing the same kind of hyper-active man-child ”trying to prove himself” kind of role, and while that can be done okay, it shows its weaknesses when he’s given bad writing, and he just doesn’t leave much of an impression here. However, as much as the writing holds them back, three actors manage to survive the film and produce at least decent to actual good performances, and its fitting that they all come from the museum; Rami Malek as the pharaoh, who adds some semblance of foreign ancient atmosphere to his performance and can at least draw your attention, Owen Wilson as Jedediah, who adds a lot of passion and even wholesomeness into his part, and especially the late Robbin Williams as Theodore Roosevelt,  who delivers the best performance in the whole film. Since he’s very down-played and has the more serious role, he’s allowed to show off his drama chops and he does it very well, even though he can occasional get some goofier elements as well (and even those parts are done okay). The side actors dressed up as the museum historical figures and statues are having a lot of fun in their roles and do offer some fun material, which is more than can be said for any of the people outside of the museum, who barely do more than the bare minimum required for any generic kids film.

The film, especially because not much effort was put into it as a ‘’kids’ film’’, doesn’t have very good effects, mainly when the T Rex and the animals are on screen, but some credit has to be given for the things that actually are there. Most of the people and even some of the animals, particularly the monkey, are on set and it does give the museum itself a unique atmosphere that feels claustrophobic and mysterious, but also a bit intriguing. The museum as a set is very large in scale and has many different areas where each part has a nice-looking environment and it does a good job capturing the massive nature of the place, so credit should be given to production designer Claude Paré, and set decorator, Lin MacDonald, for making the one location of worth a nice place to be around, as well as costume designer, Renée April, for emulating the looks and stylisations of all the different wax models and the time periods they’re set in. The music by Alan Silvestri also adds to the overall historic feel to the museum, as the opening does a good job setting the stage as each different location is give a faithful music piece that gives it a bit more distinct identity. The weakest point of this film is that is just so painfully unfunny. When a comedy fails to make you laugh, it only highlights the other aspect that most comedy aren’t usually good at, like character, story or intrigue. It’s either too simplistic and predictable, overly juvenile and first grade worthy, or so jumbled and incoherent that mumbling passes as a joke in this film.

Regardless of what it could have been, Night at the Museum is a failure in execution in what could become a serviceable kid’s film. It wouldn’t have required a lot of thought and additions made to the book in order to real work because the original source does seem to only have a basic premise to work with and nothing, but it can get away with that because its a simple kids book, a $110 million dollar star-studded film can’t.  While the setup is fun, the story is bland and forgettable; the actors are great, but most of them aren’t allowed to be funny, and the ideas and possibilities that are on offer in this film could have resulted in some amazingly creative and funny material, but the humor is as washed out and dated as you could imagine. It made enough money back to warrant several follow-ups, so clearly the film has its audience and its not its the worst product out there, its just a horribly basic film. For younger kids, it can pass the time, but a lot more stuff is more entertaining than this. Not the worst, but a museum trip that can be skipped.