The title of “The Pink Panther 2” gives some hint of the indifferent nature of this cycle of comedies, which are based on the popular series with Peter Sellers.

Back when Sellers and director Blake Edwards were doing them, at least they bothered to come up with titles: “Revenge of the Pink Panther,” “The Pink Panther Strikes Back,” and so on.

Now we’re down to numbers, which seems to fit the low expectations for Steve Martin’s revival. If I say that “Pink Panther 2” is a big improvement over the first one, it isn’t saying much.

In this installment, bumbling French idiot Inspector Clouseau, played by Steve Martin and a neat mustache, is called to join a “dream team” of international crimefighters: Sleuths from Italy (Andy Garcia), England (Alfred Molina), and Japan (Yuki Matsuzaki) are searching for a super-criminal.

The all-star cast is one of this movie’s notable upgrades. There’s also Jeremy Irons as a rich dude, French singer Johnny Hallyday as a master criminal and Bollywood superstar Aishwarya Rai as an author tagging along with the dream team.

Returning to duty are Jean Reno as Clouseau’s police partner and Emily Mortimer as the Inspector’s quasi-girlfriend. New to the scene, but welcome, is Lily Tomlin, Martin’s partner from “All of Me.”

Not returning is Kevin Kline, who played Clouseau’s long-suffering superior. One of the many disappointments about the first movie was that the pairing of Martin and Kline was a complete and surprising bust.

On the upside, replacing Kline with John Cleese is a fair trade, and Cleese has a few good head-slapping moments.

“Pink Panther 2” actually has a handful of comic ideas, including (when his stunt double isn’t doing the pratfalls) physical gags for Steve Martin: a flamenco dance across a crowded restaurant, a silent-movie juggling act with wine bottles.

And every now and then the blissful stupidity of vintage Steve Martin emerges, such as the moment when Clouseau “reads” the personality of the pope by using powers of detection.

There still isn’t really a character there — Martin almost seems embarrassed to be following in Peter Sellers’ footsteps — and the whole thing is toothless.