Preface

• I don’t always do these Spoiler-Talk Reviews.
  • Interstellar? Yup.
  • Guardians? Yup.
  • Annie? Umm, no thank you…
• And it turns out I had so much to say about Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, I wanted to recommend the film, give you guys some time to see it too if you haven’t already, and then come back here and here my deeper discussion of the rest.
• SPOILER WARNING!
• You can check out my Spoiler-Free Review, and definitely check this movie out!
  • It was a lot better than I thought, and might be better than you think!
• So I’m going into more spoilers. If you don’t want those ruined, click elsewhere on this site, there’s tons more to read!!
  • Maybe my Spider-Man/Marvel discussion? I put a lot of (almost too much) time into that one.
• Clicked away?
• Gone?
• Good!

Teddy Roosevelt

• Alright, so first let’s discuss the character in this that has the lasting impact: Teddy Roosevelt as played by Robin Williams.
• And yeah, he probably wouldn’t have had as strong of an impact had Mr. Williams not passed away.
  • But that’s what makes Roosevelt’s character so resonant: his character’s message is about moving on in life, and that wouldn’t have seemed as important had Robin Williams not died.
• But there were scenes where Roosevelt was hilarious too.
  • Like the scene where he’s just spazzing out and he starts doing these random other president quotes.
  • If I had to bet, I’d bet that Robin Williams started improving those.
• But then let’s talk about Robin Williams at the end.
  • The emotion will be my main thread throughout this Spoiler discussion, by the way, just cuz it’s what made the movie more than just a fun and silly comedy for me.
• Robin Williams has THE SCENE at the end of this movie.
• When he’s talking to Ben Stiller at the end, and he’s talking about the next phase, and how we all go through our lives…
  • That is the definition of breaking the fourth wall, and the audience’s hearts.
• One of the saddest moments on the big screen from 2014 was the one line where Ben Stiller says, “I have no idea what I’m going to do tomorrow.” And Robin Williams smiles back, “how exciting.”
• You just know that Shawn Levy, the director of this movie, had wrapped production and was in editing after Robin Williams died, and cried watching that footage play back.
• It was almost like one of his Good Will Hunting monologues, where he’s like, “there are always bad times, but they just wake you up to see the good.”
• Yeah Robin Williams’ lines at the end there really just brought all of the emotion home for me, and so did the whole ending entirely.

Ending

• Now I had a friend that I saw this movie with, and he said that the ending was the only thing wrong with the movie, which I disagree with.
• At the end, the tablet moves to London, essentially removing all the magic from the original museum.
• I thought this was great.
• And all the goodbyes at the end were so well done, well coordinated, you know how I felt about Teddy’s.
• And the movie could have cut off right after Larry leaves the museum after saying the good-byes, but they left it on a happy note.
• It shows all of the figures coming to life one more time while the tablet is on display 3 years later, and all of them are partying with Rebel Wilson and Ricky Gervais.
  • Though not to September by Earth Wind and Fire? The original Night at the Museum introduced me to that song! You gotta keep up with the continuity, you guys at 20^th Century Fox…
• But then they make the comment that Larry Daley hadn’t been back since the night the magic stopped.
• And it pans out to the street, where we see Ben Stiller standing outside the museum, seeing all the lights going off and recognizing what’s going on, smiling.
• This is sad for sure that we never see him go in, but the friend who I mentioned thought that the movie was a little lesser because of it.
  • To which I completely disagree.
• Like I said (and like I’ll get to in the next paragraph) this movie was all about growing up and what role your childhood and the past have on your life.
• Him standing outside of the museum was meant to symbolize this entirely.
  • As much as we want to relive our pasts and great experiences from months and years ago, or our childhoods entirely, we can’t.
  • But that doesn’t mean we can’t look back upon them with extreme fondness and keep those great memories forever.
• This shows the depth of his character, and how he’s grown since the start of the first Night at the Museum (and through this 3^rd installment alone).
• I liked it, but if you guys saw it differently, let me know in the comments, I’m always curious to hear other opinions!

Theme

• Like I said, the theme in this movie is growing up and it is exhibited beautifully.
• Between Robin Williams, the ending with Larry outside, even the kiss with monkey, each show the character development that has actually stretched through these three films and we didn’t even actually realize it.
• I think it’s so beautiful and artistic when a film (or series of films) can do that, especially with just some PG-rated live action kids’ movie.
• This theme of growing up is so much more than just a kids’ movie theme too.
  • You see Stiller’s son who’s reluctant to go to college, and I can identify with how teenagers are scared of entering the larger world.
  • You see Larry deal with this the most.
    • At the end you see that he has his act together now, seemingly, and is ready to enter the next phase of his life.
  • Again, that’s how I see it at least, and I thought that this theme tied the whole movie together in the most ingenious method possible.
  • Other 2014 movies like The Lego Movie and Boyhood tried to present these themes and I’m not saying that Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb is better than these (well, it is better than Lego but probably around the same as Boyhood) however, it tied these themes up in the most unknowing way.
    • Kids who watch this movie can go back 3, 5, 10 years from now and watch it for the second time since they were 6 or 7 and see these themes.
    • That’s the problem I hold against movies like Annie, they don’t make the movies seem like a part of your childhood that resound later in life. They make kids dumber.
    • So kids’ movies like How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb hold a special place in my heart for those reasons, and are no doubt worth seeing multiple times.
      • Which makes me really psyched to see it again on Blu-Ray or On Demand.

Hugh Jackman

• OH MY GOD!!!!!!
• Fantastic celebrity cameo alert!
• Hugh Jackman stole every second of screen time he had in this movie, and like I said, there was a scene where I was breaking a rib laughing.
  • The one where he’s doing his Wolverine thing.
• That’s something that only someone cool could do.
  • Make fun of themself and their proud franchise in a non-disrespectful way.
  • You see Adam Sandler fails at that in every movie, so it’s always reassuring to see people like Hugh Jackman pull it off!

***

Well guys, those are my Spoiler-Filled thoughts on Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb! Hope you enjoyed, and leave all your spoiler-ish thoughts in the comments! And as always, thanks for reading guys.