It wasn’t just girl power that made Pitch Perfect a success back in 2012. Quirky characters, witty humor, and some melodic A Cappella singing made the breakout hit a creative and fun film for any fan of young adult comedies. But Hollywood has always had a problem at quitting while they’re ahead (*cough* Transformers). When I saw Pitch Perfect 2, I had a bad feeling that this ride may have hit its peak. After watching the third installment in the series, it’s clear that this franchise has run dry.
Pitch Perfect 3 reunites Beca (Anna Kendrick), Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson), Emily (Hailee Steinfeld), and Chloe (Brittany Snow) with the rest of the members of the collegiate A Cappella group the Barden Bellas (Anna Camp, Ester Dean, Hana Mae Lee, Chrissie Fit). Despite most of them having pretty successful careers and being in their 20’s, the Bellas are going through a bit of a millennial mid-life crisis which leads them to join a USO traveling tour for one last hurrah where they must compete with bands who don’t sing covers.
The plot to this film is scraping the bottom of the barrel so much that they’re getting nothing but wooden shards. None of it, from the flat romantic arcs to the lackluster competition, is interesting or compelling. The Bellas rival, a band of unnecessarily rude women called Evermoist… yes Evermoist… is more annoying than threatening. The subplots are even more left field. A side story involving Fat Amy’s drug smuggling father (John Lithgow using a horrible Australian accent) is downright insufferable. It unnecessarily interjects mindless action sequences and an irrelevant rescue mission into the story that seems to only succeed in making the movie long enough to qualify as a movie and not a DVD extra.
The music is enjoyable, specifically an early rendition of Sit Still, Look Pretty by Daya performed by Hailee Steinfield and the new Barden Bellas. But the unusually off the wall antics make the musical moments far more difficult to remember. No one asked for or needed CGI explosions and stunts in a Pitch Perfect movie. It’s just dumb and distracting and it takes away from what audiences really come for which is the singing and the camaraderie between the characters. If you’re really keen on seeing this movie, you’re better off renting it and fast forwarding to the musical parts. Thus, it gets the same grade I would’ve given a film with similar sentiments: You Got Served…
FINAL GRADE: D