Pitch Perfect 2 Review

Starring: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow, Hailee Steinfeld, Skylar Astin, Adam DeVine

2012's Pitch Perfect was a surprise success. It's one of the biggest cult movies of all time. If you don't believe me, Pitch Perfect 2 made more in 3 days than the entire revenue of the first film. I cannot tell you how many people told me to watch Pitch Perfect as soon as it came on DVD. Literally, everyone was all over this movie, and it stumped me why no one went to see it in theaters. The first film is an incredibly funny movie with a great purpose. It takes the college comedy and turns it into a fresh new idea, and I believe Pitch Perfect 2 capitalizes on this. Pitch Perfect 2 is not hilarious, and is not nearly as funny as the first one. But it undergoes a certain kind of change from the first one, as if it has morphed into a new type of movie. This is a very good movie, but it is so different from the first one. Directed by Elizabeth Banks (who appeared in the first one, and appears here as well), she seems to capitalize on the success of the first one, and this allows it to graduate into a more serious movie.

Everything about Pitch Perfect 2 feels bigger. The main thing I loved was the music. The music is much better than the first one. I don't want to spoil many of the songs, because it is greater when you don't know what's coming. The Riff Off scene is much better than the one in the first movie. I also favored Das Sound Machine as the enemies rather than the Treblemakers from the first movie. Das Sound Machine, the German group the Barden Bellas team would be challenging in the World Championships, looked like a real threat. Both the German male and female were very good in their roles, and I enjoyed that the film downplayed the romance between Jesse (Astin) and Beca (Kendrick). In the last movie, it was the "forbidden love" between two families in a Romeo & Juliet style that was just so old, I liked that it was ditched here. I don't think "Flashlight" is better than "Cups", but it definitely makes more of a presence. Remember "Cups" is a remixed version that became popular after the film, and the actual song didn't make much of an impact in the movie. "Flashlight" is the original song of the sequel, and they perform it at the finale to much applause. It's written by a newcomer played by Hailee Steinfeld. In my opinion, she was the best in the movie. Steinfeld is an Oscar nominee for True Grit back in 2010, and she definitely brings some acting chops.

Here's what I thought did not work. Lily (the Asian who doesn't talk) is not very funny. Her whispered lines of sheer ridiculousness was one of the highlights of the first film, and what she says isn't very funny, and it's a lot more infrequent than in the first one. Fat Amy is also not as funny, but I feel like Rebel Wilson did a better job acting-wise. Her character actually had an arc, and a romantic relationship. So she upped her game, but lost her humor in the process. The commentators were one of my big problems. They were my favorite part of the first movie. The showed up so infrequently that every time was absolutely hilarious, and here they show up too much. And none of them is really funny either. Gail is played by director Elizabeth Banks, and I attribute this to her not being able to act and direct well at the same time. But she does direct with an incredible skill both behind the camera and from a business perspective. She's definitely capitalized on the success of the first film.

That's really all I have to say about Pitch Perfect 2. Quality-wise, it's a better film than its predecessor. It lacks the re-watchability that the first film had in spades. I can watch Pitch Perfect over and over again (I probably have seen it at least 10 times by now) and the jokes are still hilarious, and it's like watching it for the first time. It never gets old and that quality will, I believe, immortalize it in time as one of the defining movies of this generation. This movie flows better, but it doesn't quite match the surprise and awe of the first film.

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