Academic

Family Film Blogging: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithstonian

By Gordon Smith, Christine, Hurt, Vic Fleischer, Fred Tung, Lisa Fairfax, David Zaring

So, the weekend's here, and lot sof family movies are starting and continuing in local theaters.  This month, we've seen a few, starting with Night at the Museum:  Battle of the Smithsonian.  I like both the original Night at the Museum and this sequel, much for the same reason that I like the National Treasure series.  These movies are great advertisements for our nation's museums and history sites.  Last year, we took our kids to the Smithsonian, and I really wish that this movie had been out at the time.  As it was, they enjoyed seeing the film this summer and spotting places they had been and things they had seen last summer.  We had a similar experience visiting the New York Museum of Natural History after seeing the original Night at the Museum. 

The sequel is just as enjoyable as the first, and I think my kids might have liked this one better.  In the sequel, kids don't have to endure the portions of the first film in which Larry the night guard was confused and frightened and felt like he was in a Kafka novel.  By the time this movie begins, Larry is on top of things, confident, and generally up to any challenge.  My biggest complaint with this movie, and its predecessor is that according to these films, there seem to be almost no women in U.S. history.  As the two most famous history museums in the country come to life, they only seem to have one woman each.  In the first movie, Sacajawea was the sole female historical figure, and in the sequel, the plum role goes to Amelia Earhart.  At least the Amelia Earhart role has more speaking lines and screen time, but really, are there only two female historical figures in the U.S. worth mentioning?  All kinds of men get some screen time, from generic cowboys, Roman soldiers, cave men, Egyptian soldiers, and Native Americans, to named figures such as Teddy Roosevelt, Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Gunga Din, George Custer and others.  Surely we could have scraped up some generic pioneer woman or "rosie the riveter."  How about if the hall of First Ladies came to life.  That would have been inspired!  (I bet someone in Hollywood is hitting his forehead going "Doh" right now.)

I'm also a little peeved that to reflect Amelia Earhart's risk-seeking personality, the movie depicts her more than a little flirty.  I don't know enough about Earhart's personality to say if she deserved this characterization, but I won't let it stop me from buying the DVD. 

Full post as published by Conglomerate on June 12, 2009 (boomark / email).