Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb: Godbye William & All others

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
*ing: Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Dan Stevens, Ben Kingsley
Rated: 5.5/10
It’s time to go son,” says Robin Williams — now late — and it was uncomfortable see him go. Night at the Museum is about multiple closures — Williams is very sadly gone, the Museum trilogy is over and Stiller’s predecessor night guard Mickey Rooney has signed off from life too.In that sense, you could call this one a film full of heartfelt goodbyes — Williams who committed suicide this year in August stars as Theodore Roosevelt for one last time, signing off from films and life one last time. This being his last screen presence, he gets a tribute with more meat as Theo than he did in the preceding two editions of this unique Museum saga.
The trilogy itself comes to an end without too much of a bang and an unshaven (was he really that tired of this series?) Ben Stiller walking off into the night as the museum artefacts enjoy their nocturnal aliveness with gay abandon.It all starts with the Tablet of Ahkmenrah corroding it magic and lending a freaky side to the museum dwellers, spoiling the opening night of the Hayden Planetarium with invasions of the Neanderthal kind frightening the invitees away.Along the way, there is much mumbo jumbo about daddy-son issues, the Egyptian curse, the journey from the New York Museum to the British Museum in London with all the originals — Attila the Hun, Rexy the Tyrannosaurus, Jedidiah the cowboy, Octavius the Roman warrior, Dexter the capuchin and, of course, Theo (Robin Williams) Roosevelt accompanying night guard Stiller to script a survival plot.
The new additions in Laa the Neanderthal who is the spitting but distorted image of Stiller, Lancelot of Camelot and Pharaoh Ben Kingsley who comes in briefly with some sense of humour to lift up the proceedings, are welcome last-time additions to this museum soiree which started with a bang, evened out in the middle and is now closed without too much of an ado. Now, that’s not what we wanted from Stiller & Co, a little more laughs, a little less staidness would have been perfect.

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 28 December, 2014

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