‘Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb’ Trailer: London Calling

[Transcendence]

 

 

Many moons ago, Thomas Lennon (of Reno 911 fame) relentlessly teased the possibility of inflicting a third installment in the Night at the Museum series upon the movie going public. Chances are, so much time has gone by since he made his fateful, cryptic warning that everyone has completely forgotten about it. The project seemed to have drifted off into the horizon, like so much flotsam; that should make today’s reveal of the Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb trailer all the more jolting.

 

 

Yes, Larry Daley is back, and this time, he’s going global: for reasons that even a two minute and twenty one second promo can’t make clear, Larry has to make haste to London to help preserve the magical force that brings his museum exhibit buddies to life. Seems as though the franchise’s central MacGuffin – the Golden Tablet of Pharaoh Ahkmenrah – is running out of juice and needs a recharge, lest Larry’s legions of animated compadres cease to live. (Such as it is.)

 

So the new movie will take audiences across the pond, where the residents include Pitch Perfect‘s Rebel Wilson (as a museum security guard with a grossly inflated idea of what the job entails in the US) and Downton Abbey‘s Dan Stevens (as Sir Lancelot, because of course Dan Stevens should play a knight in shining armor). They’re not the only new cast members, either – Ben Kingsley shows up as recurring character Ahkmenrah’s dad, while Skyler Gisondo steps in to play Larry’s grown up son.

 

 

 

 

But don’t worry; nearly everybody else who has had a hand in the rest of the Night at the Museum trilogy is back for more, too, including Robin Williams, Ricky Gervais, Patrick Gallagher, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, and, naturally, Ben Stiller as our intrepid hero. Shawn Levy’s back, too, and he’s brought along his usual bag of kid oriented bathroom gags, as well as a surplus of giant CGI monsters for the cast to contend with; swapping a skeletal T-Rex for a triceratops seems like lowering the stakes, but maybe the giant stone lions and a hydra make up for that.

 

Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian had a rough time domestically, but turned a tidy profit worldwide; most likely, Fox is hoping for a similar outcome with Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (particularly with its holiday season release), but they’re probably not holding out for much else.

 

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb opens on December 19th, 2014.