Few comedians have honed a particular style as thoroughly as Ben Stiller. His shtick, which works with varying success, is playing characters too conceited to see their conceits. He plays the moron with an unrelentingly straight face, oblivious to all flaws which threaten to topple his character’s personal successes, whether in Dodgeball as White Goodman, or in Tropic Thunder as Tugg Speedman. His most revered role, and one of my personal favorites, is Derek Zoolander. The character embodies the faults and shallowness of the modeling industry; the film boils down to jokes about looks being more important than brains, but they’re strikingly effective thanks in large part to Stiller’s portrayal of idiocy and the authenticity in which he lambasts the modeling industry.

It’s disappointing, then, to see that Zoolander 2 strays from Ben Stiller’s tried and true caricatures. While there is always room for artistic growth, Zoolander 2 feels more like something cooked up in the mind of Will Ferrell than something Ben Stiller would create.

Zoolander 2 sees Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, and Will Ferrell reprise their roles as Zoolander, Hansel, and Mugatu, respectively. The plot revolves around an international conspiracy to kill off all attractive people in order to bring Derek Zoolander back into modeling. While the premise is rife with comedic possibility, director Ben Stiller sucks the dignity out of his own film until his cast is reduced to lazily throwing out random jokes and hoping any of them stick.

The most striking flaw  of the movie is its laziness. Besides a vast number of jokes being cheap pop culture references, Stiller never takes the time to properly set up a gag. Each line is thrown carelessly at the audience to illicit an immediate but false reaction. Jokes need a set-up, a premise, to create a truly satisfying payoff. Without such careful construction, they morph into a grotesque blob of forgettable one-liners and unearned zaniness.

Another crucial flaw is the most damning for comedy sequels. Zoolander 2 forces its characters off of the first film’s path plot-wise, but panders excruciatingly to moments from the original. Jokes that aren’t references to modern culture are ripped directly from the first film. These are fine in moderation, but are plastered throughout Zoolander 2.

Lastly, the film just doesn’t feel like Stiller. The dialogue and situations are just too random, the characters are just too fake in their characterizations and motives. The films that Stiller has directed (Tropic Thunder, Zoolander, Walter Mitty) are directed with an eye for stylized settings. They feel cinematic, bigger than life itself no matter where they’re set. Zoolander 2 feels cheaply made, with an eye towards CGI over practical sets and a bland mix of close ups and more close ups. Stiller simply lakcs his usual flair. As mentioned, Zoolander 2 feels more like something Will Ferrell would create but then handed off to Stiller for no particular reason. Perhaps if Adam McKay had directed, or Judd Apatow, the film could’ve found a more stable footing. Instead, Stiller stretches into territory he’s clearly not comfortable in and the risk doesn’t pay off.

Zoolander 2 is a disappointment on every level. It’s not funny, not authentic, not cleverly crafted or well thought out, and just plain doesn’t try very hard to be a product of superior quality. Stiller has brought to life wonderfully conceited characters in the past and I hope he doesn’t continue to stoop to these lows as his career continues. 3/10.