…Just kidding. If anything these movies have only grown increasingly off-the-assembly-line since whatever promise the first one had. This one is set in London, but does it really matter? One of the problems with these movies is that it doesn’t matter if they’re set in NYC (the first one) or D.C. (the second one) or London because nearly the entire film takes place in a museum that could really be anywhere. International museums follow roughly the same layout as American ones, so being inside one museum doesn’t really feel all that different from another one.
What Works: The only significant new character is Dan Stevens’ Sir Lancelot, so we’re pretty much forced to have fun with him or have no fun at all. Even though we only catch sideways glances of them, I liked the porcelain hippos we get to look at all too briefly, and there’s a fight with an Asian “dragon” that’s not bad. But there’s not enough visual inventiveness to this movie.
What Doesn’t: The second installment in this franchise had Amy Adams in a great co-starring role as the romantic lead, but this film doesn’t even mention the doppleganger Ben Stiller met at the end of that film—unless I fell asleep somewhere in the movie and missed it—so it’s a little disappointing to be with a character that’s moving backwards in his life since this film has no romantic interest for him whatsoever. It also doesn’t have enough new characters, and the major new actor is a guy taking on the useless role of Stiller’s feckless and bratty teenage son. It’s a stock role that the movie didn’t need; it’s supposed to add depth to Stiller’s character but it just winds up feeling like all too much of this movie: only half-way committed and not headed in any real direction.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Merry Christmas everyone!