Review: Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb

For those coming in blind to the Night at the Museum franchise, Secret of the Tomb must be an ambivalent viewing experience. This third entry undoubtedly shows wear and tear, yet amidst the obvious retreads and medium-spirited shenanigans lies a kernel or two of what made the series so wondrous and appealing.

Eight years have passed since Ben Stiller's night watchman Larry Daley discovered an Egyptian tablet had the power to bring to life the inhabitants of the American Museum of Natural History. Larry has kept the secret so well that museum director Dr. McPhee (Ricky Gervais) and the museum's moneyed patrons believe the living and breathing exhibits are the result of mere special effects. The New York City glitterrati are suitably awed as the exhibits put on a show during a gala reopening of the Hayden Planetarium. Something is amiss, however, and soon the T-Rex is rampaging, Orion the hunter is shooting arrows at the guests, Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) is pointing his rifle at Larry, and the animals are running amok.

The tablet appears to be on the fritz, slowly corroded and covered by green rust. Larry pays a visit to his predecessor Cecil (Dick Van Dyke, shown shaking his groove thing) and his pals Gus and Reginald (Mickey Rooney in his penultimate appearance, and Bill Cobbs), none of whom want to revisit their museum days. Larry gets Cecil's attention by showing him a picture of his father at the 1938 excavation that unearthed the tablet. The locals had warned them not to disturb the tomb, intoning "The end will come." Perhaps it wasn't the end of the world they meant, Cecil and Larry realise, but rather the end of the magic. Larry and company must travel across the pond to the British Museum to find the one man who can reveal the tablet's secret: Ahkmenrah's father Merenkahre (Ben Kingsley) who, upon learning Larry is Jewish, delightedly replies, "I love Jews! We own 40,000 of them."

Returning director Shawn Levy and screenwriters David Guion and Michael Handelman leave quite a bit of comic potential untapped. They seem content to let new additions Dan Stevens as Lancelot and Rebel Wilson as a man-starved night guard simply do their thing, a lazy but not altogether bad approach. Wilson wrings laughs out of very little and Stevens is clearly having a ball, revealing a comedic side that any sensible producer should exploit pronto.

As engaging as returning players Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan are, it would have been wiser to bench them as their adventures (falling down a grate and into a ventilation shaft, finding themselves in the city of Pompeii just as the volcano is about to erupt) come off as filler. Stiller himself seems curiously disengaged (though not so curious when one learns Stiller signed on to the film in order to ensure The Secret Life of Walter Mitty would get made).

Levy does manage one brilliant sequence - a three-way fight between Larry, Lancelot, and Teddy Roosevelt that takes place inside M.C. Escher's trippy lithograph "Relativity." Levy takes full advantage of the physics-defying setting. There is also some fun to be had as Lancelot rides through the streets of London only to find himself onstage during a performance of a revival of Lerner and Loewe's Camelot.

Ultimately, Secret of the Tomb will be remembered as Robin Williams' cinematic swan song. No one could have foreseen this would be the actor's final film yet, in hindsight, the film is designed as a means of closure. Williams, who was capable of delivering galaxies when his peers were content with the world, doesn't get very much to do here. He conveys a tenderheartedness that will be sorely missed, and his last words onscreen prove fitting and poignant: "Smile, my boy. It's sunrise."

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb

Directed by: Shawn Levy

Written by: David Guion, Michael Handelman

Starring: Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais, Ben Kingsley, Dan Stevens, Rebel Wilson, Rami Malek, Patrick Gallagher, Skyler Gisondo, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Bill Cobbs, Andrea Martin