The original "Night at the Museum" was by no means a movie of any significance. It was nice to see Hollywood give viewers a little insight into world history (however unintentional it probably was) but the real hook was the wonder of something inanimate coming to life. The characters were a fun group and the interaction with Ben Stiller's Larry Daley generated some laughs. However in "Night At the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" none of that wonder exists. The characters are always "alive" and the whole movie is just a throw everything at the screen and see what sticks approach.

There were so many characters around that none of them had enough screen time to do much of anything. The cast of characters from the first "Night of the Museum" are present but most are around just to give the viewer a comfortable familiarity. They don't have any meaningful to do. In fact this is more a game of name-that-historic-figure than anything else.

We also are subject to lots of Ben Stiller's stammering and stuttering. It's almost gotten to the point where I can say it used to be funny. The conversations between Stiller's Daley and Hank Azaria as Kahmunrah are way too long and generally not funny. Also painfully unfunny time killers were the three Cherubim whose only reason for existence is so the viewer can play "name that voice". Come to think of it this movie is so lazy it doesn't even try to create any new characters.