Poor first half of the movie, pretty damn funny second half. Mugatu is on hot form in the final act

Not all that far adrift from the original, for me. I would class 'Zoolander 2' as a step below its predecessor, but there's not much between them in my opinion - admittedly, I only found the first film to be marginally passable. It starts off well, I was liking the opening few scenes. That interest of mine definitely waned as the run time went by, though there's still enough there to avoid proper boredom. Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell and Penélope Cruz make the film watchable enough. Cyrus Arnold does alright as the kid, while the numerous cameos are minorly amusing to see. I can't say it's a film I enjoyed or that I'd rewatch, but I didn't find it be all that bad either.

Enjoyable to me, mostly in a so bad its good kind of way. "All" character was kind of offensive I took a whole point off for that.

Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson are back on the runway as male models Derek Zoolander and Hansel, perhaps sporting a few extra wrinkles around the eyes. The original Zoolander was a sleeper hit, pulling a shocking number of laughs from what seemed like a very thin concept, and its delayed sequel, unfortunately, pales in comparison. Like many folllow-up efforts from the same genre (Austin Powers and The Hangover, I'm looking at you here) Zoolander 2 falls into the trap of constantly re-hashing the gags that worked the first time. Why innovate when the well's right there waiting for your return, after all? What new material it does bring to the screen is often good for a chuckle, but not deep enough to mine for richer material. Benedict Cumberbatch's gender-bending role as a competing supermodel is a great example. We get about three minutes of big laughs from the character, but then he's spent and is cast aside. Even the returning faces seem lighter and less interesting, particularly Will Ferrell's big-haired fashion mogul, Mugatu. They're propped up with sight gags and cheap one-liners, but there's no masking the lack of inspiration in their writing and performance. Humor arrives in sprinkles throughout this film, like a series of not-quite-ready pitches for an upcoming episode of SNL, but that's not good enough to make up for a bland, obvious storyline and an aimless, meandering pair of central character arcs. Pointless and under-cooked, or maybe over-cooked, considering how long it was left to incubate. Whatever the cause, it's a swing and a miss.