Review of Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014) by Bryanbezter — 01 May 2020

Great things about the movie:

1. The storytelling is brilliant. I really love it. It also have great jokes and hilarious moments.

2. Amazing production design, costumes and properties.

3. The historical & natural figures, references, and knowledge in the movie are very interesting.

4. Great performances by Ben Stiller as Larry Daley and Laaa, Robin Williams as Theodore Roosevelt,Owen Wilson as Jedediah, Ricky Gervais as Dr. McPhee, Dan Stevens as Sir Lancelot, Rebel Wilson as Tilly, Rami Malek as Ahkmenrah, Patrick Gallagher as Attila the Hun, Mizuo Peck as Sacagawea, Ben Kingsley as Merenkahre, Dick Van Dyke as Cecil Fredericks, and Crystal the Monkey as Dexter.

5. The characters designs by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant are perfect.

6. The character development is amazing.

7. Beautiful cameo from Hugh Jackman.

8. Perfect movie for family and children. It is fun, entertaining and hilarious.

9. The score is very beautiful.

10. Great lessons: friendship, parenting, and humility.

This movie is a beautiful tribute to Robin Williams and Mickey Rooney. It is the best movie in the trilogy which completes it: the first movie gives relevant introduction about the tablet and characters, the second movie tells more adventure about them, and the last movie gives beautiful complete background about the tablet and ending to the character.

Weaknesses of the movie:

1. The visual effects need improvement (T-rex, statues, animals).

2. The actor who played Nick Daley was recast.

Debatable holes:

1. There were noises inside the museum that should have been heard by people outside, especially the guard.

2. Was there any GPS application or feature for live-tracking with that level of detail?

3. How could Larry and Nick go back to the Museum of Natural History with the wax models on the same night? Were they sent as cargo?

Messages from the movie:

1. The movie delivers beautiful friendship of Larry and everyone from the museum, specifically between Larry & Teddy, Jedediah & Octavious, Larry & Attila, and Larry & Dexter, who used to hate each other. They are able to overcome their differences, trust in each other, face and solve the problems together.

2. The movie shows Larry who struggles in becoming a good and responsible father for Nick. He is worried about Nick's future. He also faces the same thing with his job as the guard of the museum, in which he feels responsible to take care of everyone in the museum.It teaches us that as a parent, not everything can be controlled, because the child is the one who lives his/her live. A parent should guide, inspire, and believe in his/her children.

3. At the end of the movie, Teddy, Jedediah and the others decide that it would be the last day they become alive. They understand about themselves (statues, models, miniatures) as museum's properties, but more than that, they realize their purpose, which is so that museum visitors can learn something from them. This is the struggle faced by Lancelot, who does not accept the fact that he is just a model and his quest for honor is not real. Fortunately, in the end he realizes that the true quest is to live for each other, not for his own honor.