I remember three years ago when a former voice coach gave me two free passes to see some movie called Pitch Perfect. I passed, thinking that it looked incredibly stupid and would probably bomb at the theaters.
Oh, how far we have come.
Currently the reigning movie at the box office with 66% on Rotten Tomatoes, Pitch Perfect 2 is the second big blockbuster of the summer that girls everywhere (and probably a few boys) are flocking to see. Even though the movie’s been out for over two weeks, a large group of high school girls and even two grandmothers piled into the matinee I saw.
As a fan of the original movie (and a capella singing in general), I was really hyped to see this. I adore Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld and was excited to hear more amazing mashups of popular songs through beat-boxing and harmonies.
My main problem with this movie is the amount of rehashing of the plot and the jokes. In 2012, we saw the Barden Bellas struggle to redeem their boring routine with the help of newcomer Beca and go on to win the national title. Here, we see them struggle to redeem the world-renowned status of their group after a mishap at a national performance with the help of newcomer Emily as they try to win the world title.
Fat Amy and creepy Lily’s one-liners have the same formula as before, even though Wilson improvises most of her lines, and the jokes relating to racial and sexual minorities still play to the lowest common denominator of their stereotypes.
Sequels are supposed to improve upon what the original already did well while adding some new elements to the plot. But while Pitch Perfect 2 stays true to the elements that made the first movie a favorite, it doesn’t really try anything new, and it could have.
Since all the Bellas are seniors, they have a talk about being afraid to graduate and what their plans are for the future. This would have been a great thing to focus on, since it’s relatable for the film’s demographic. The only brand-new thing to this movie is an insane amount of celebrity cameos.
It seems like the team behind the film didn’t think that girls everywhere would be excited to see this movie no matter what, so they packed the film with celebrities Snoop Dogg, Pentatonix, the Green Bay Packers, Keegan-Michael Key, Jimmy Kimmel and all four of The Voice judges, to name a few.
That’s not to say that I didn’t throughly enjoy the movie, because of course I did! Kendrick’s character was not trying to be distant and unlikeable for the entire film, Wilson is still amazing at what she does, the friendships and romantic relationships are very sweet and genuine, the banter between Elizabeth Banks and co-show host John Michael Higgins is still very funny and I did think the cameos were hilarious, especially David Cross as the Riff-off host.
The focus of the movie is still the singing, which is amazing, of course. The Treblemakers perform an amazing rendition of MIKA’s “Lollipop” and the German rival group to the Bellas gives some seriously amazing performances. The Riff-off is still amazingly fun, and the final performance brought tears to my eyes (as well as a sweet rendition of “Cups” with each girl harmonizing together as a send-off to the Bellas).
I’ll give it a B+, despite some major flaws. Although it still follows the feel-good movie formula and may not be anything shockingly new or memorable, Pitch Perfect 2 is still a great way to spend a summer afternoon, and you’re probably better off seeing this than the Poltergiest remake any day.