Review of Pitch Perfect 2 (2015) by Brian S — 21 Jun 2015

Humming onto center stage in 2012, Pitch Perfect was a satisfying, fun, weird experience-and completely caught me by surprise. Focusing on an a cappella group and its adventure to the top of American collegiate ensemble sing-offs-the creative team had enough foresight not to take the subject completely seriously and the results were immense.

The story had a Bring It On vibe, some crude humor and a simple, but effective, story. With such positive attention and success, Universal followed it up with 2015s Pitch Perfect 2, a sequel that can't match the technique of the first but still (mostly) bops to the effective beat.

As most sequels do, this one goes bigger by introducing European a cappella groups into this weird alternate reality and the premise is encouraged with some fun scenes that take advantage of the series' premise.

Unfortunately, a lack of focus in the writing department (or editing) takes away a lot of the potential the film could have had. Certain plot points feel unnecessary and forced, some scenes feel surplus, and certain story threads are express-lane'd into resolution-it gives Pitch Perfect 2 an unnatural rhythm and the film never quite settles on the right vocal tone.