Night at the Museum – Kahmunrah Rises Again Movie Review: Zachary Levi’s Animated Escapade Lacks the Adventurous Spark of the Ben Stiller Films (LatestLY Exclusive)

Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again Movie Review: Night at the Museum is back! But not in the way you would expect it to. Acting as a continuation to Secret of the Tomb, Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again directed by Matt Danner is the fourth film in this franchise, and it returns with a one-hour animated escapade that never really is able to capture the adventurous and fantastical spirit of the earlier films. Violent Night Movie Review: David Harbour Brings the Season’s Beating in This Comedic Festive Treat! (LatestLY Exclusive).

Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again sees Nick Daley (Zachary Levi) enlist his son Larry Daley (Joshua Bassett) to be the new guard of the Museum of National History. With the museum coming alive every night and him being familiar with the fantastical tales of it from his father, Larry accidentally forgets to lock the basement which sees the rise of, you guessed it, Kahmunrah again. With him hellbent on his goal of world domination, Larry and some of the legacy characters of the franchise must band together and stop him before his plan is complete.

You think that plot is similar? Well, you’re right, because it is. Featuring the antagonist of the second film in the franchise, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, this latest doesn’t offer much in return. Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again is very by-the-numbers in its execution that at times you’re just left with something familiar in taste, and that is because so many of the characters feel like a stand-in for their original counterparts.

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Replacing Ben Stiller, Zachary Levi voices Nick here and while he does bring something new to the role, it's just hard time buying the fact that it’s the same character from the previous films. Meanwhile, the character of his son Larry just doesn’t have enough charisma to him, which unfortunately makes him a boring enough lead to follow. Having a crush on a girl in his school that he is too afraid to make a move on, while having high ambitions of music – Larry just ends up feeling like a caricature of every high-school student who is down on their luck.

Same can be said for the legacy characters like Theodore Roosevelt (Thomas Lennon) as well. The best example here I can give is of Jedediah and Octavius, who are voiced by Jack Whitehall and Steve Zahn respectively, and were portrayed by Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan in the original live-action films. Whitehall and Zahn just can’t match the chemistry of the latter, and the characters just feel lackluster. Joseph Kamal’s Kahmunrah also makes for a generic villain, and his plans doesn’t seem to have changed since we last saw him 13 years back. Black Panther Wakanda Forever Movie Review: Tenoch Huerta, Letitia Wright Bring Their A-Game to Marvel’s Most Poignant Film Yet! (LatestLY Exclusive).

However, it’s not all bad considering the animation of Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again is indeed pleasant to look at. Thankfully not opting for a glistened 3D look most of the films thrive on, the movie has a sleek 2D animation style that’s quite pleasant on the eyes. The pace also moves well, and while the plot doesn’t really pack in much, Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again has a couple of flashy sequences that won’t entirely make the adventure seem like a bore.

Yay!

Animation

Nay!

Doesn’t Do Anything new

Lacks the Spirit of the Franchise

Final Thoughts

Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again is something that definitely won’t wow you in any sense. Say what you want about the previous films, but they were still dumb fun at the end of the day. However, Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again can’t escape from feeling like an uninspired miss. Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar right now.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 09, 2022 01:46 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).