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One out of Five stars
Running time: 76 mins

Utterly dismal, badly animated and poorly written sequel that lacks any of the wit, charm or originality of the first film and should have gone straight to DVD.

What's it all about?
Directed by John H Williams, Space Chimps 2: Zartog Strikes Back is the sequel to the 2008 animated adventure. While space chimps Ham (Tom Kenny, replacing original star Andy Samberg), Luna (Cheryl Hines) and Titan (Patrick Warburton) are preparing for their next mission, techno-wiz chimp Comet (Zach Shada) accidentally blasts into space and winds up on the planet Malgor with his alien friend Kilowatt (Laura Bailey, replacing original star Kristin Chenoweth).

Meanwhile, the explosion from Comet's accidental blast-off releases alien overlord Zartog (not original star Jeff Daniels, but someone else who isn't nearly as good) from his frozen prison as a garden statue and he heads straight for mission control, vowing revenge on those responsible for his downfall.

The Bad
The first Space Chimps movie was an entertaining, well written and frequently funny animated adventure with a dash of originality and a steady stream of jokes for both adults and kids. The sequel, sadly, has none of those things and comes across like a lazily produced, direct-to-DVD cash-in follow-up that was accidentally given a cinema release.

The badly written plot barely even lives up to the film's title (Zartog's revenge is particularly pathetic), the animation is extremely shoddy throughout and the script lacks the wit and charm of the original film – in fact, you get the feeling that the only part of Space Chimps 2 that the filmmakers cared about was the 3D element (because 3D is, like, so hot right now) but even the occasionally passable 3D moments (mostly involving Ham or Comet getting shot out of a cannon) aren't enough to compensate for the poor quality of the rest of the film.

The Worst
On top of that, the performances lack energy and even the few actors that did return from the first film (Hines, Warburton, Stanley Tucci as the Senator) are sidelined and given nothing to do. It's also fair to say that without the voice of Kristin Chenoweth, alien light-bulb Kilowatt is an exceptionally annoying character.

Worth seeing?
Space Chimps 2: Zartog Strikes Back is so bad that it actually sullies your memories of the first film. Ignore the lure of 3D – this is essentially unwatchable. One to avoid.