Movie Review: Pitch Perfect 3(2017)

Summary: Following their win at the world championship, the now separated Bellas reunite for one last singing competition at an overseas USO tour, but face a group who uses both instruments and voices.

Pros:

Cast and the Characters. I think a really strong aspect of this movie is how the actresses really feel like friends. They have great chemistry with each other and they’re relatable in some of their misgivings and problems. I think everyone does well in their roles, I was going to go through the characters and kind of talk about them, but I realized, I can’t really do that. So, anyway, I think the standout, of course, is

• Anna Kendrick as Beca Mitchell. She is a Barden Bella alumna, who worked as a producer but she quits due to creative differences. She doesn’t really know what she wants to do with her life, she loves music, but isn’t sure what her goal is. I like Anna Kendrick and I think it’s because of her that I enjoy Becca. She can sing. I liked how this movie went back to focusing on her and music a bit more than it did in the second movie as that’s how the first movie started and focused on. Anna Kendrick has great comedic timing and I like how she interacts with other characters.

• The others: Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson), Emily (Hailee Steinfeld), Chloe (Brittany Snow), Aubrey (Anna Camp), Lilly (Hana Mae Lee), Cynthia-Rose (Ester Dean), Flo (Chrissie Fit) are all good in their roles too. They’re playing the same characters we’ve seen them play previously and we know those characters, they’re funny and entertaining to watch. They still have the running joke of Jessica and Ashley not being that important in the group lol. But they work well together, they’re a team and a family and it shows. We get to see them have fun in this one and it’s fun to watch them.

• DJ Khaled is also in this movie and I very much enjoyed him playing himself in this movie. He’s a funny and larger than life dude.

The Music. As always, some of the best parts of Pitch Perfect is the music and how they use it for the Bellas. I think a capella groups are rather cool, not to mention, we can see that these girls can actually sing and are very talented since they rely on just their abilities and not instruments. It’s pretty cool. Plus, when they do the “riff off” in this movie, that entire scene was really fun and the musical choices were catchy. I think the last song is probably my favorite.

The Main Story. So basically, all of the Bella’s we know have graduated college and are living their lives in the real world. Emily is still in college, so she is handling the Barden Bellas while on campus and everyone feels like they don’t really know what to do with their lives because nothing seems to be going right. So, they embark on this tour, with the hope to find their purposes in life. I like that storyline. It’s nothing new but considering how in the second movie, Chloe particularly kept failing a class so she could stay in college to sing (even though she’s like three years older than Becca and the others), this is a natural story progression. I liked that because a lot of people don’t know what to do with their lives after they spent so much time doing something amazing. It is concluded and it was sweet.

The Fun. This movie is really fun, it’s funny in some places. I think it’s more funny when it’s not trying to be funny. The beginning scene, when they did the opening title card, I looked at my friend and said “I’m already down” and while there are a lot of problems, I cannot deny that I had fun watching this movie. I thoroughly enjoy these characters, they all have great chemistry with each other and the antics they get into are a bit outlandish but how they handle it is really fun.

Cons:

Fat Amy’s Extra Storyline. There is this entire storyline that I did not care about and I think it brought the movie down. I’m guessing that they didn’t have enough to put with the main story that they felt it was important to give Fat Amy a storyline to help pad the runtime. Look, I know she’s a fan favorite character, but it was completely unnecessary and I was getting super annoyed with it. The only good thing that came out of it was the scene on the boat. Plus John Lithgow’s Australian accent was terrible and every time he talked, I wanted to throw my water bottle at the screen.

Nothing New. The first one was so good because it was new, we’ve seen this type of movie before but not with this formula. This movie, being the last one, doesn’t add anything new to the formula the first one created. It wants to recapture the magic of the first and it doesn’t. A lot of it, is jokes, antics and big funny (not so funny) things. It’s very generic.

The Humor. So unfortunately, I don’t think the humor lands in this movie. It does sometimes but not enough to really get its own “pro”. When it’s trying to be funny, it’s not funny. When stuff just happens because a character does something stupid, that’s funny, but when they’re making jokes sometimes, or doing something for the funny effect, it comes off as desperate and I rolled my eyes a lot.

Overall, I enjoyed Pitch Perfect 3, I had a lot of fun watching the movie. I still very much enjoy these characters and the actresses playing them. Anna Kendrick is a standout, she can sing and I very much enjoyed hearing just what she can do, I think this movie allowed her to do a bit more with her voice compared to the other two films. The music is also great, it’s very catchy and it shows that these actresses are very talented since they’re doing this with just their mouths. The main storyline is also important and a concept that a lot of young adults actually deal with, I liked how they handled it. It’s also a very fun film! Have fun watching it. On the other hand, I did not like Fat Amy’s extra storyline, it was unnecessary and just felt like extra that didn’t need to be there. I didn’t ask to learn more about her background and I just didn’t care about any of it. It really irritated me actually, every time we went back to the storyline, I sighed loudly in my head lol. I also think they try way to hard to be funny, it’s funny when it’s not trying to be, but when it is, it’s lame and I rolled my eyes a lot. I also just have to say, stop trying to make Ruby Rose happen, she’s not a good actress and I thought the other singer, Andy Also had a lot more charisma than she did. Lastly, this movie doesn’t add anything new to the formula the first one created. It came off really weak, with a little bit of humanity due to the characters.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Have you seen Pitch Perfect 3? What do you think about it?

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