Apparently Steven Soderbergh and his filmmakers were so caught off guard (as were we) by the surprising success of 2012’s Magic Mike that they failed to incorporate a natural segue leading into a second chapter. But that’s never stopped Hollywood from plowing forth with a sequel anyway, and it certainly didn’t with Magic Mike XXL, a film without the same wit, charm, and gritty ambiance of the original.

Don’t think for a minute the futility of a discussion about pacing, cinematography, and character development in a movie like this is lost on me, as those aren’t the things people come in droves to see in a film about male strippers. And my analysis certainly won’t go there. But with so many other missing elements that made the original so enjoyable, none of the magic remains in Magic Mike XXL.

With the use of some silly excuses, director Gregory Jacobs and writer Reid Carolin attempt to explain why three major characters (including Mathew McConaughey’s Dallas) are absent this time around, and why the titular Mike (Channing Tatum) has become disillusioned with the legitimate working world and instead becomes interested in reuniting the boys for another go at the male stripper spotlight.

Apparently, the furniture making business isn’t all that, and the girl he thought was the one… actually wasn’t. So when Big Dick Ritchie (Joe Manganiello), Ken (Mat Bomer), Tarzan (Kevin Nash) and Tito (Adam Rodriguez) come knocking as they make their way to a Stripper convention (didn’t know those actually existed), Mike jumps at the chance to get the band back together and go on the road. Naturally, Jacobs takes that literally and makes Magic Mike XXL a road trip movie. A sort of traveling male revue, if you will, and the perfect opportunity for the guys to take us from one strip sequence to the next.

First stop is drag queen night at the fictional Mad Mary’s featuring the boys taking the stage before eventually settling in at a beach party where Mike meets Amber Heard’s Zoe, a photographer he’d like to learn more about. Their conversation is meant to represent a meaningful connection between the two, but in trying to be mysterious, Heard makes Zoe so distant and aloof, neither Mike nor the audience understands her. The tedious scene quickly becomes almost unwatchable. And a later chance for the two to hook up doesn’t fare any better.

As the boys spend the night on the beach, the film grinds to a screeching halt with another extended scene of mind-numbing, improvisational banter about what happened to the characters between films and more mindless drivel about what each wants from life. With this scene, Jacobs goes for character building but gets boring instead.

Next stop? The home of Rome (Jada Pinkett), an old friend of Mike’s who is now the impresario of a unique exotic entertainment palace. Rome reluctantly agrees to help choreograph a new act which they hope to reveal once they get to the convention in Myrtle Beach. This scene, featuring The Kings of Tampa showcasing their “talents,” comes closest to what the audience paid admission to see. But ladies, don’t get your hopes too high as there’s mostly just a bunch of bare-chested gyrating and vulgar bumping and grinding with otherwise very little skin and even less sensuality. The money shot comes earlier in the film when Big Dick Richie visits a convenience store and surprises the fortuitous clerk with an impromptu shirtless performance -- still can’t figure out why they get so angry at their shirts -- that will likely change how we all feel about gas station truck stops forever.

Magic Mike XXL doesn’t even rise to our ground-level expectations. In fact, it’s probably more in line with what we all thought the original would be: just a shameless crowd-pleaser showing a ton of beefcake tantalizing the audience with glistening abs and strained thongs struggling to do their job. Anyone expecting the surprise unexpected chemistry or anything resembling the visual panache Soderbergh brought to the original, will be seriously disappointed. And no. We don’t learn what the XXL of the title means. We can only speculate.

(Released by Warner Bros. and rated R for strong sexual content, pervasive language, some nudity and drug use.)

Review also posted at www.franksreelreviews.com.