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None of this matters much in Battle of the Smithsonian. The story, focused entirely on intrigues among the animated exhibits, takes a back seat to spectacle and slapstick. Robin Williams' Teddy Roosevelt, the most endearing of the original exhibits in part because of his self-awareness, is reduced to a couple of cameos. Would-be substitute General Armstrong Custer (Bill Hader), whose climactic moment of angst and self-doubt over Little Big Horn is robbed of any poignancy by the blustering buffoonery he's displayed until then, is a wash.

A few standout moments evince some real respect for the historical significance of the figures and icons represented by the museum. In an actual lump-in-throat moment, the WWII Tuskegee Airmen, the first black U.S. military pilots, pass by Amelia Earhart, and one salutes her, thanking her for her pioneering efforts and adding, "A lot of people thought we couldn't fly too." Adams' Earhart, whose breezy, fast-talking 1930s spunk deliberately evokes a working-class Kate Hepburn, is about the movie's only ray of sunshine.

Mostly, though, the historical icons are played for cheap laughs, like Rodin's Thinker (Azaria again), who turns out to be all brawn and no brain, and is less interested in cogitation than in hitting on a nearby female statue.

Of course silliness is to be expected. I don't mind the goofiness of the bobblehead Einsteins—at least no more than the notion of a bobblehead Einstein in the first place—especially since they actually solve the mathematical puzzle at the heart of the ancient tablet that Larry is running around Washington trying to decode. (So their approximation, which they wrongly specify "to be exact," is only accurate to a random eight decimal places. That's way more accurate than any of the clues Robert Langdon unravels in Angels & Demons. Anyway, they're bobbleheads.)

On the other hand, the Lincoln Memorial statue is something of a travesty. Lincoln is perhaps the most iconic figure in American history, and the Memorial is one of the nation's chief civil shrines. Surely here, if anywhere, a modicum of reverence is called for. But no. Lincoln (Azaria yet again) is merely an expensive special effect, an all-white computer-game avatar who displays no personality, displays no insight and says nothing memorable, except a random reference, apropos of nothing, to his famous "House Divided" speech (an allusion to Luke 3:25 and parallels).

There's no reverence for the Lincoln Memorial statue

Lincoln is also the locus of a major Idiot Plot problem. The giant Lincoln statue is obviously one of the most powerful figures around. Why doesn't it occur to Larry that Lincoln could settle with the bad guys in thirty seconds? Why do we have to wait another half hour for another character to show up with Lincoln at the crucial moment? Worse, why does Lincoln show up, save the day, and then leave again just in time for the huge battle at the end? Because otherwise there would be no story.

By the end, of course, Larry has his moxie back. He also kisses the girl, though for most of the film he shows little interest in Amelia, presumably because he knows that she isn't real (though this doesn't stop him from taking drastic action to save the equally unreal Jedediah). He even gets to kiss the nurse from Eisenstaedt's iconic V-J day kiss photo (for tactical reasons, though after sixty-odd years of kissing the same sailor she seems delighted with the change).

Not until the very last scene does the film suggest that Larry needs real relationships with real people, not just nocturnal adventures with fantasy friends. Of course, Larry's needs aren't really the point. The point is the Night at the Museum fans in the audience who—much like his old friends—like Larry best as a night guard at magical museums.

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