The first film had a budget of $40 million, the second had a budget of $45 million, and this film had a budget of $25 million. The lower budget is clearly apparent. The first film had (spoilers!) Johnny being right all along, but completely incompetent at being able to get there. The second film was (spoilers!) the opposite. An older Johnny was wrong about his lunch and investigation techniques, but was successful in spy operations and fights. The third film forgets the first two and has him as less competent than in the previous two films. The stakes are way too high, and the way that MI7 was portrayed was ridiculous, not in a good way. I liked the return of Bough, and I was interested to see how he'd be used, now that English has himself put together. I would have found it interesting to see him fail due to incompetence of those around him, so he goes rogue, but learns that you have to rely on others to get the job done in the end, but no, English was way too stupid. Too stupid for it to be funny. He was noticeably dumber than the last two films. The film has too many jokes which are telegraphed way too early, and unlike the previous two films, where English earns the respect of his love interest, she only likes him because that's his role, he has no redeeming qualities in this film.
I understand, it's a comedy, and the main character is stupid. But the main character isn't even consistent within the film, and certainly not with the previous two films. There were a number of jokes which got a bit of a chuckle, some were downright funny, but most seemed to have the flawed philosophy of "more jokes = funnier film."
Overall, the film suffers from compatibility issues with the rest of the series. Out of context it may have been fine, but I believe that every part of a series should be judged in terms of what it brought to the whole, and this film didn't bring much. If this was the first film, it may have possibly been a good jumping-off point, but due to its context within the series, it's terrible.
On a final note, I did enjoy some of the scenes where English's analog ways slow him down, but this wasn't really capitalized on enough.
I understand, it's a comedy, and the main character is stupid. But the main character isn't even consistent within the film, and certainly not with the previous two films. There were a number of jokes which got a bit of a chuckle, some were downright funny, but most seemed to have the flawed philosophy of "more jokes = funnier film."
Overall, the film suffers from compatibility issues with the rest of the series. Out of context it may have been fine, but I believe that every part of a series should be judged in terms of what it brought to the whole, and this film didn't bring much. If this was the first film, it may have possibly been a good jumping-off point, but due to its context within the series, it's terrible.
On a final note, I did enjoy some of the scenes where English's analog ways slow him down, but this wasn't really capitalized on enough.