Review of Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014) by Aodhan R — 03 Feb 2015

Just as things were ought and expected to get smoother in Night at the Museum 3, which the second movie avoided when following the original movie, they just had to get worse for the sake of clichés. The best parts: (and the great surprise) a brief return from actors Dick Van Dyke, Bill Cobbs and Mickey Rooney, whom were the primary villains of the original movie. It's better a brief scene than lacking any scenes throughout. The worst parts: appalling and annoying acting from actors Dan Stevens, Rebel Wilson and (surprisingly) Ricky Gervais, who gave a more serious and likeable performance in the original movie. My top worst actor out of this small list is Rebel Wilson; she acted so daft it was awfully clichéd and due to her weird, unnecessary dialogue and style of acting for her role it was noticeably bad. She's very nice, nonetheless, and everyone deserves a second chance, so I'll give her that; it's never too late for second chances. The acting and gags of Dan Stevens, who played the movie's villain Sir Lancelot, was also pathetic and out of place - but he's new in my eye as I've never seen him appear in anything else besides this, so second chances are being handed as well to him.

The movie suffers the most from it's poor storytelling. Director Shawn Levy and writers David Guion and Michale Handelman really tried to bring something new and exciting to the series, and it almost worked in a way, but the dialogue and storytelling is noticeably poor and weak, and not well structured and has been done many times before - and if I had choice I think I'd prefer to see another Madagascar sequel for Ben Stiller fun than another Night at the Museum; it was still a fine effort, but only cheerful for kids.