Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb (4/10)

Supposedly the final installment for Night At The Museum franchise; but really now, if it still made enough money, I'm sure they'll find ways to keep it going. One thing's for sure though, Ben Stiller won't be back to lead the next one.

Secret Of The Tomb was also one of Robin Williams' last movies, and the main reason why I wanted to watch it. What's poetic was that one of the final scenes, Stiller's character was saying goodbye to Williams. And it felt like we were saying goodbye to Williams. And in his final words, he said that the sun's coming up (indicating he'll be turned back into wax, as is the mythology of the story); and he smiled. He was at peace. And he wanted Stiller, and us, to carry on and move on.

Sadly, this wasn't a good movie. When I didn't laugh even once in the first 15 minutes, I started to worry a little. But when after 30 minutes and I still had not laugh once, that was when I knew this movie had lost me.

And I wouldn't fault Shawn Levy as I thought the direction was what kept the movie going and not bore me to death. But the writing was like beating on a dead horse.

The plot was horribly thin. The jokes were stale. The subplots with Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan dragged on and were uninteresting, and the plot points especially with arriving at Pompeii didn't make any sense. And wasn't funny either.

I'm one of those who hasn't been charmed by Rebel Wilson yet. I haven't found her as funny as everyone else thinks. And in this movie, I still didn't see it and I didn't think she added much.

Even Williams himself did not shine on the screen. He looked lethargic, and didn't have that kind of energy he usually brought to the screen. But I thought Ben Kingsley brought some sparkles to an otherwise boring experience.

The only other character with more screen time that was mildly interesting was Sir Lancelot portrayed by Dan Stevens. And the only scene that was memorable, for obvious reasons, was the one with two other actors that made a brief cameo - they shall remain nameless in this review as not to be spoilers.

As for Stiller himself, this third time in this character even though he brought a lot of charisma, it's really time for him to move on as well. There's no more room for him to grow in this franchise.