film review: night at the museum - battle of the smithsonian

For all that Night of the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is faulty - a formulaic plot and admittedly spotty pacing being the most egregious - it's a film that comes without the pretense off being anything other than silly, good-hearted entertainment. In a key respect, I would say it is a more honest film than Abram's Star Trek, even if the latter is technically superior. Abram's Star Trek is little more than an action film in a Trek veneer - the ideas and spirit of exploration that infused the franchise under Roddenberry's guidance is simply not there. In contrast, Night of the Museum succeeds in being about something - namely, the excitement and imagination that comes with visiting and learning from a museum - without pretending to be something it isn't. To some extent, that the film plays hard and loose with facts is beside the point; this is like the kid in the proverbial candy shop, turning each encounter with a museum exhibit into an imaginative adventure without being stifled by details. In other words:

Though this be fluff, yet there is heart in it.