Review of Pitch Perfect 2 (2015) by Brooke J — 14 Nov 2015

I loved the first movie when I saw it, so I was pretty excited about this movie. I was, however, a little skeptical. I haven't seen Mean Girls 2, but many people say that it was terrible compared to the first one, so I was worried that Pitch Perfect would take the Mean Girls route. I really wanted to like this movie, but it was just kind of disappointing.

A couple of good things about this movie were the music and the fact that the movie avoided useless Beca/Jesse drama that I had no patience for. The music in this was pretty great (though I didn't think the Bellas' final song was anything that spectacular). Also, I was actually dreading walking in and having to watch Beca and Jesse fight or have needless relationship drama that I really did not care about, but the movie knew that Beca and Jesse could be a happy couple without it making a difference to the plot.

Unfortunately, I had a lot of problems with this film, particularly when it came to the comedy. A lot of the jokes in this movie seem recycled from the last movie. "Oh, fans liked the ginger joke in the post credits clip in the first one, let's add another ginger joke where we don't really need it, just because." "Oh, fans liked Lily's ridiculous, kooky comments when they were in moderation, let's add more and up the ridiculous scale of her comments, that's totally not going to come off as forced at all." "Oh, fans liked the inappropriate humour of the two judges? Let's add MORE inappropriate jokes from the judges!" In fact, it wasn't only the jokes that were recycled, it was plot points too! "Oh, fans liked the riff-off in the first movie, let's add one into this movie! I'm sure no one will notice." "Oh, fans liked the subtle hints in the first movie that Bumper and Amy were sleeping together, let's make them an actual couple now!".

Yes, you read that right, Bumper and Amy are an actual couple now. I'm not kidding. And yes, the couple is about as devoid of romantic chemistry as you think. They worked as two people who like to shag each other. As a couple? Hell no. Not only did the movie just make Bumper a nice character with no explanation for his change of heart, but they also expected us to believe that he would work with Fat Amy. Those two have nothing in common except for the fact that they like to sing and they like sex. That's all. There's no chemistry, just the fact that the movie says they belong together.

The opposing team in this movie are assholes, of course, because no opposing team in movie competitions can actually be nice people just wanting a little friendly competition. The opposing team is always filled with assholes. And then, when they are no longer the opposing team, but are still useful for the sequel, they just become a nice person magically with no explanation (see Bumper.) It was predictable, and the ending just felt kind of rushed, and not spectacular and amazing in any way. Overall, Pitch Perfect 2, while it had nice music and some funny parts, mostly felt recycled from the first movie, with forced humour and forced romance. It was a huge disappointment.