Or, A blog called Night at the Museum 2.
For starters, this is considerably more extensive. The blog itself is focused squarely on Battle of the Smithsonian but covers nearly everything you could possibly think to cover about a movie: what did you think about it? promo pictures, cast/crew list, trailer, and perhaps most importantly in a movie blog: what is the damned thing about? If you're looking for a comprehensive guide to BOTS, Night at the Museum 2 is the place to be. (There are some small holes which could be plugged if the author chose, like character profiles and such, but that's very minor versus last night's blog up for bat.)
That having been said, this is by no means a "praise blog", which is to say that the purpose of this blog is not to praise the movie, but rather to study it and provide in-depth coverage of it, and nowhere is this more evident than in the overview and review posts. The author not only offers his/her take on BOTS, but spices her synopsis with his/her take and almost turns it into a second review, or a review trailer. The main message is that the performances came off as odd to the author, namely Ben Stiller, Amy Adams as "perky to the point of annoyance (for me at least)", and the kicker, Hank Azaria; apparently "for some reason the voice they chose for his character was a bad Boris Karloff impression with a lisp thrown in for good measure." The way I understand it, and this is just me, is that Azaria came to the voice of his own accord, and the lisp was a byproduct of his efforts. And another thing: Kahmunrah is not a "prince". He's "Fifth King of Egypt". My spasm of defensiveness for one of the Brothers Egypt now over, we can move on.
I will say only a few things about the review, however: the famous V-J Day photo is set in New York, not Paris, and in 1945, not 1950; I only recall Amelia saying 'ace' a good two or three times, if, but if that's enough for you, then it's not my business; and good on you for closing with that shot from the deleted scene World Twister. That brings the blogger's take up to one glaring inaccuracy, one gray-area item, and the pleasantly-minded touch of Kahmunrah's "borderline sacrosanct wisdom". The review in itself is generally critical of BOTS, regarding it as "more-is-less" and generally down with a terrible case of sequelitis. Don't worry. I've heard this complaint a lot. If you feel that way, that's none of my business, but for the purposes of this blog (in this case, giving truthful commentary of other NATM-themed blogs).
There is nothing wrong with this blog, but for the two things which rubbed me the wrong way and the one thing which made me iffy (respectively: the author's calling Kahmunrah a "prince" and choosing to state that the voice was not the choice of the actor, and the misplacing of one of the most famous photographs of all time; and the matter of the frequency of Amelia's use of 'ace'). Considerably better as a NATM-themed blog than "A Night at the Museum", which was a more informative piece about ancient Egyptian society in general (see last night if you're truly curious), and the first in my blogroll which places square focus on a part of the franchise rather than claiming the title of the franchise to do other things with. Good on the author for that, and of course, World Twister! (Seriously, that needs to be a real life game.)
Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": The third on my blogroll, a little ditty called "Night at the Museum 3 Trailer". Sounds promising, no?
Countdown: 291 Days to NATM 3.
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