Following the highly successful first movie, Pitch Perfect 2 had it’s success written into the books long before the movie hit the big screen. It didn’t matter whether the movie was better than the first, it doesn’t matter now either, and it’s because Pitch Perfect is all about having fun, singing and girl power – three things that are supposed to be good no matter what!
I’m not going to lie, I sort of liked the first movie and the only down side to it was the vomiting pit which simply lowered the overall quality of Pitch Perfect in my eyes. The second movie, thankfully, avoided all bodily fluids and in my opinion it also seemed to have better writing in regards to Rebel Wilson’s character. The plot on the other hand was weaker and didn’t really have a good impact, which meant that Rebel Wilson as Fat Amy had do to a lot of work to keep the movie going. In other words, Wilson was hands down the strongest of the cast here and since the movie seemed to focus a lot on her storyline, she managed to outshine everyone and everything.
I’m not sure what exactly happened to Anna Kendrick’s character but she was bland from start to finish. She seemed to be present and yet distant, and the new addition(s) to the group were definitely showing weaknesses as well. The sad part was definitely not implementing Ester Dean’s Cynthia-Rose more into the storyline because she has by far the best vocals and her character should have had a bigger spotlight. The disappointment wasn’t an all around feeling as I thought adding Hailee Steinfeld’s character gave the movie a bit of spunk and freshness it needed.
The plot in short revolves around saving the Barden Bellas’ reputation that literally was lost after Fat Amy was spinning under the ceiling and her pants ripped… while she was not wearing any underwear. In order to get back to their glory days, and since the Barden Bellas were banned from performing, they intend to win an international a capella completion to prove they are the best. Big competition, bigger stage performances and outrageously good German mixed group who is locked in to win because they are pretty much big, loud and powerful.
Pitch Perfect 2 was in short an attempt to do things bigger and better which ultimately didn’t work in my eyes. Sure, they added some new faces, gave more screen time to the commentators John and Gail (John Michael Higgins & Elizabeth Banks) and, like already mentioned, implemented more Fat Amy into the plot but that didn’t make it excellent. My biggest concern is the fact that I wasn’t able to connect to the characters anymore, and though the songs were good, I didn’t really have a wow moment with any of the performances. On a plus side, I did feel like as a whole, everything related to Fat Amy was amazing and she deserves a movie on her own! For her, and mostly for her, I’m giving the movie a higher rating than it really deserves.
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The first part was amazing.
The second was just a *sequel*!
Yes. It did what sequels do.. make you think about the awesomeness of the first one.. I liked it as an experience but I wouldn’t revisit it.
True that… i literally thought that it would be great. But whatever, you get to see your stars.
Yup, agreed – Rebel carried that movie all the way.
Fingers crossed for a separate Fat Amy movie!
Rebel is pretty awesome at what she does…I’m just afraid she’ll never be able to do anything BUT Fat Amy. Like…she’s hilarious, but every film I’ve seen her in has her playing the same character, and that is death to an actress. I hate to say this, but I don’t see her making movies in the next 5 years.
Shame, really.
And I liked this. The formula was a little too…predictably the same…and Kendrick never does anything for me…but the music was great and Rebel sold it.
Great review!
Rebel is sort of like the young McCarthy.. I feel like she will get these roles of obnoxious characters a lot. And by obnoxious I mean those kind of characters that either do embarrassing things physically (like fall, or dance weird, or get dirty etc) or they portray a strong character but they swear a lot and use obscene language. I feel like some women will never be seen as powerful, like the kind of “no bullshit”, smart and intelligent comebacks without limp dick unicorns and so on women. But that’s how it is nowadays.. the more of you there is, the less respect is out there for you.. and I’m not saying it disrespectfully, I understand it because I feel like I’m one of those women.. so maybe that’s why I feel for Wilson and McCarthy so much more.