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| - Haven't reviewed this yet, despite numerous visits. It's a great museum with a friendly staff and fair prices for viewing the permanent collection and normal special exhibits, though the add-on for the "blockbuster" exhibits is a bit much. As the ones I've seen have been disappointing, I'd recommend skipping them.
To me, the strengths of this collection are the spectacular collections of Chinese pottery, architectural items and temple items; the dinosaurs and early mammals; the range of the archeological and ethnographic collections; and the neat costume exhibits (just saw the one on Mexican clothing and it was gorgeous). The small but excellent mineralogical exhibit is also worthwhile.
One quibble I have besides the blockbusters being a letdown is that the Daniel Liebeskind reworking can be disorienting when trying to find things on the second and third floors. (Also, the locations of the washrooms are not well indicated when you are on the other side of the floor from one and need one.) As for the architecture, it is more impressive on the inside than the tumour-like appearance of extruding a modern building through a neo-classical shell is on the outside.
It is well worth almost a full day if you don't get museum'ed out and it certainly the best museum in the city, much better, I feel, than AGO (which is to my opinion is beginning to seem more and more mediocre). There is a lot here for the kids, and if you can tear them away from the dinosaurs there is tons of other stuff they can enjoy.
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