Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.0

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb Blu-ray Movie Review

A different kind of tablet problem.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 10, 2015

There’s an ineluctable melancholy to Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb that has nothing to do with the film’s sometimes slathered on emotional content as it supposedly wraps up the kinda sorta trilogy that also included Night at the Museum and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. No, the bittersweet quality is due squarely to the fact that two titans of American film, Mickey Rooney and Robin Williams, are on display, inevitably reminding us of their passing, which in the case of Williams at least seems cruelly untimely and tragic. Rooney at least made it to the venerable age of 93 before shuffling off this mortal coil, and his brief appearance in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb is perhaps upsetting more in terms of seeing how infirm the old guy was at the time of shooting (consigned to a wheelchair and looking like he may have had a stroke at some time). But Williams? Williams’ self-inflicted demise was shocking enough, but to see him here reprising his role as Teddy Roosevelt (or at least a living mannequin version thereof) is an inescapable reminder of what a force of nature he was. It’s an especially heartbreaking situation when the film’s very plot involves the “mortality” of the magically sprung to life museum artifacts, and when Teddy utters lines like, “It’s time to let us go.” That aspect aside, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb is a somewhat haphazard but ultimately generally satisfying wrap up to the series, one that tries to inject a bit more human element into its typically CGI laden wonderment.

The always evocative setting of an Egyptian archaeological dig in the early(ish) 20th century provides Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb with its enjoyably atmospheric prologue. In the shadow of the pyramids in 1938, a perhaps obsessed “digger” is insisting that work continue even though there’s a bad storm a-brewing. This man’s young son, CJ (Percy Hynes-White) literally falls right into the buried temple his father has been searching for without success. With apocalyptic winds marauding around them and despite one of those portentous warnings that no one ever seems to pay attention to in films such as these, the tomb is raided for all of its loot. That booty includes the tablet of Akhmenrah.

Flash forward to contemporary times and Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) has parlayed his erstwhile night watchman job into something decidedly more upper crust, as he manages a huge soirée that has the Museum of Natural History’s head honcho Dr. McPhee (Ricky Gervais) obviously delighted, despite the fact that McPhee is clueless about what’s really going on with all these “living” displays, believing it all to be special effects wizardry. Ahkmenrah (Rami Malek) alerts Larry to the fact that the magical tablet which bears Ahkmenrah’s name is exhibiting signs of corrosion, something that is new and unexpected. When things go horribly, horribly awry at the evening fete at the Museum, Larry puts two and two together and starts investigating the history of the tablet to see if there’s a connection between the ugly green rust climbing up its surface and the bizarre behavior of the living exhibits.

That ultimately sends Larry on a quest to The British Museum in London, where Akhmenrah is reunited with his parents (played by Sir Ben Kingsley and Anjali Jay) and Larry is surrounded by a gaggle of the usual suspects, including Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), Jedediah (Owen Wilson, Octavius (Steve Coogan), Attila the Hun (Patrick Gallagher) and Sacagawea (Mizuo Peck), and of course the obstreperous Capuchin monkey Dexter. New this go ‘round is Laaa (Ben Stiller), a wax figure Neanderthal whom McPhee had humorously modeled on Larry. At the British Museum, this gaggle of misfits also runs into Tilly (Rebel Wilson), a socially awkward security guard and, later, none other than Sir Lancelot (Dan Stevens), whose own quest for the Holy Grail spills into the main plot (and provides one of the film’s nicer cameos, which won’t be spoiled here).

This is a frankly kind of middling entry that nonetheless provides just enough entertainment value to keep its (waxy?) head above the water. The subplot dealing with Larry’s problems with his son Nicky (Skyler Gisondo) are more of a distraction than the obvious “human interest” angle they were meant to provide, and the supposed “secret” of the tomb turns out be rather anticlimactic (delivered without much of a fuss as the film enters its end run). Still, there’s undeniable fun with these by now familiar characters, and there are several laugh out loud moments, many featuring the spectacularly feral Laaa, who develops a taste for both styrofoam and, later, Tilly.

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This is a sometimes problematic transfer, though not having seen it in its theatrical exhibition, I can't state definitively whether the anomalies are an inherent part of the film's digital photography or some issue in the encode of this Blu-ray disc. According to the IMDb, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb was filmed with Red Epic cameras and boasts a 4K DI and at least some source material at up to 6K resolution, but a cursory examination of several screenshots accompanying this review (notably 11, but take a look around at others) shows that the image is often afflicted with splotchy yellow artifacts. These often crop up on digitally shot films in darker sequences, but what's a least a little concerning about this is that these are readily apparent even in scenes boasting fairly bright and natural looking lighting (look at Robin Williams' cheek in screenshot 2 for just one example). The good news is that these are not quite as problematic in motion as some of the screenshots might suggest. Aside from this somewhat distracting issue, the rest of this transfer is really sharp and nicely defined. Fine detail is excellent in close-ups and the CGI is often nicely crisp and precise looking. Aside from the requisite color grading (e.g., the yellow tint to sequences like the opening Egyptian prologue), the palette is warm and inviting and very natural looking. The film's neat looking M.C. Escher sequence (see screenshot 4) boasts a very sharp and well defined image that doesn't dissolve into moiré or aliasing.

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb features a boisterous and immersive lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix. The surround activity can be rather frenetic at times, as in the opening celebration sequence or, later, in a nice set piece involving Lancelot and a many-headed snake (isn't that Hercules territory?). The set piece taking place "inside" an iconic M.C. Escher work also features great surround placement. Dialogue and score are both presented very cleanly and are well prioritized. Fidelity is top notch, dynamic range is extremely wide, and there are no problems of any kind to report.

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted/Extended Scenes (1080p; 14:13)


• Improv, Absurdity and Cracking Up - The Comedy of Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (1080p; 8:05) is an EPK dedicated to the hijinks on set.


• The Theory of Relativity (1080p; 12:09) is a really cool featurette looking at the film's spectacular M.C. Escher set piece.


• Becoming Laaa (1080p; 7:24) takes a look at Stiller's atavistic alter ego in the film. While it is addressed in this fairly brief piece, I wish they would have spent a bit more time detailing the techniques to get Stiller "interacting" with himself in the film.


• A Day in the Afterlife (1080p; 16:26) is a pretty silly piece supposedly detailing the "resurrections" of characters like Akh for this newest film in the franchise. This may appeal more to the film's younger demographic, though.


• The Home of History: Behind the Scenes at The British Museum (1080p; 21:24) looks at the practical location work of the film at The British Museum.


• Fight at the Museum (1080p; 6:22) focuses on the film's quasi-hydra set piece.


• Creating the Visual Effects (1080p; 3:10) is a way too brief piece looking at the film's Academy Award nominated special effects.


• Audio Commentary by Shawn Levy


• Gallery includes:

  Pre-Vis (1080p; 1:05)

  Photos (1080p; 1:00)

  Note: Both of the galleries offer manual and auto advance options. The timings above are for the auto advance option.


• Theatrical Trailers (1080p; 4:49)

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb is unavoidably elegiac in both its inherent tone as well as its "meta" aspect with regard to Williams and Rooney. That tends to undercut a bit of the humor while also providing an unexpected emotional resonance to the proceedings. There are some really fun set pieces in this outing, including the spectacular M.C. Escher vignette, as well as some scattered hilarity and at least one very funny cameo (Camelot-eo?). If the film is ultimately a little sad and unambitious, it's still wonderful to have a few last minutes with such an enjoyable daft set of characters. There are some issues with the video presentation that may cause concern, but audio and supplements are both excellent, and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb comes Recommended.