Yes, I know. Pitch Perfect 2 came out over five years ago. But I always wanted to write about it – the whole franchise, really. Because I think it’s important and because I frankly love it. A recent occurrence (the Bellas reuniting for a song that benefits UNICEF) just reminded me how much I love it and so I rewatched Pitch Perfect 2.
Pitch Perfect 2 is my least favorite of the three movies – I guess I should put that out there right away. And I want to use this short introduction to point out why because I don’t want to come back to its flaws when I’m going to analyze specific themes.
Its most obvious flaw is that it rides on the tails of its predecessor. It’s basically the same movie as Pitch Perfect. It’s about a successful acapella group that falls from grace and has to redeem itself. The stakes are higher here – as they should be – and we know most of the main characters (Pitch Perfect 2 introduces two new characters into the group) but we have a Riff-Off, we have a bonding scene that incorporates a new sound, and the great finale where everything comes together just like in the first movie.
While Beca Mitchell (Anna Kendrick) is still a solid character in the sequel, most of the other characters are reduced to stereotypes and one-liners. This is especially daunting with the characters that are already part of minorities. Cynthia Rose (Ester Dean) is still way too predatory towards Stacie (Alexis Knapp) and her dialogue amounts to little more than ‘I’m gay, you get it?.’ Lilly (Hana Mae Lee) still says the weirdest things but since nobody can understand what she says, it’s just shrugged off. And Florencia Fuentes ([Chrissie Fit] introduced here) from Guatemala apparently lived in squalor before but can somehow afford an American education. Basically, what we get from these characters are stereotypical jokes that are not in the least funny.
It’s similar with Amy (Rebel Wilson). Amy is still funny a lot of times, but other times her baseline is just ‘I’m fat, isn’t that too funny.’ As with Cynthia Rose and Flo a lot of the humor is based on stereotypes and prejudices and one would’ve wished that Pitch Perfect 2 could go beyond those obvious baits for cheap laughs (if you’re even able to laugh about them). Fecal humor falls in the same category, obviously. I’m not talking about Amy accidentally showing her vagina to the President (Obama, not the other guy), that part was funny and the commentaries from media celebrities were quite amusing. It’s about fart jokes and the likes. And this may be just a preference but I would rather say it’s about how it’s done. Aubrey puking her guts out in Pitch Perfect: horrifying but also hilarious. Amy leaving the tent at night and telling her Bella-sisters exactly what’s going on in her lower intestines: nah, thanks.
Characterization was lacking for most of the characters, the exceptions being Beca who got an internship learning about music production (and making a lot of coffee), Amy (in that she’s entering a relationship with Bumper), and Emily, the newbie of the Bellas. Even Chloe (Brittany Snow) is decimated to nerves and bossiness – she basically exhibits her Aubrey-side throughout the movie and only returns to her lovely more generous self in the end.
Besides that, the movie is overloaded with celebrity guest stars. While those cameos are mostly good and amusing, there are simply too many of them. In the beginning, we have all those commentators on tv (screenwriter Kay Cannon is part of it, then there are Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, Jimmy Kimmel, Rosie O’Donnell, Rosie Perez, and those were just the ones I know), later we have some Green Bay Packers, the Pentatonix, Snoop Dogg, Robin Roberts, and in an epilogue to the movie the judges of The Voice (Pharrell Williams, Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera, and Blake Shelton), and then we have some very recognizable actors playing characters within the plot (among them Katey Segal, Keegan-Michael Key, and David Cross). I get why they’d all want to be part of it but the movie felt awfully crowded and that’s even before you add half a dozen acapella groups.
These are roughly the most disruptive factors within the movie, the things I could do without which are not really worth closer inspection. I wanted to get them off my chest before I write more closely about some of the themes in the movie. I might also return to Pitch Perfect and compare the two movies a little before continuing with Pitch Perfect 3. I’m excited to be writing about PP again, we’ll see how long it lasts.
Corikane - Diggin' Deeper 