(Not to give too much credit to the new “bands”, including Evermoist, led by Ruby Rose, because after seriously mocking the Bellas for being a “cover band”, it turns out they all do covers too! A Cranberries tribute is particularly poignant with the recent death of Dolores O’Riordan.)Īnyway. How dare they! I thought college was supposed to prepare you for the real world but these ladies are literally not even prepared for guitars. ![]() Now you might think that being in a war zone is the toughest part of this new chapter, but in fact, to the Bellas, because they’re not crazy AT ALL, the worst part is competing against bands that play instruments. A last ditch effort to reunite comes in an invitation to perform for the troops in a USO show and since the Bellas have literally nothing else going on (except for one unwanted pregnancy), off they go to a warn-torn Spanish resort hotel to do their part. Shitty jobs aren’t panning out and dreams are already broken, and the old Bellas are feeling obsolete (I know! Who would have guessed that majoring in mouth music wasn’t really the best life choice?!). Having finally graduated from college, a new crop of girls is singing acapella at their alma matter and the old Bellas are feeling obsolete. It certainly shouldn’t be anyone’s starting point for these films, and it definitely doesn’t hold a candle to the fully fleshed out films that came before it, but as far as blatant encore franchise exercises are concerned, this is more a flat note than a wrong one.The Barden Bellas from the first 2 movies are back, but they’ve been replaced. Sure, the jokes don’t hit as hard as they once did, nor are the situations the cast find themselves in particularly inspired beyond how much they jump the shark, but the experience is breezy and light enough that it isn’t going to leave the diehard fans entirely disappointed.Īnd really, if all you’re here to see is some good a cappella performance and one last farewell from the characters you love, Pitch Perfect 3 is adequate. Not every character is afforded an arc-at least not in more than passing dialogue reference-but Brittany Snow, Hailee Steinfeld, Ester Dean, Chrissie Fit, and Hana Mae Lee feel like they never stopped playing their respective Bellas, and their comic delivery does a lot to save the film from being a total chore. That might be a shame considering how consistently her laugh lines land, and it acts as a stark contrast to Anna Kendrick, who has already moved on to bigger things and is practically sleepwalking through her performance toward what I’m sure was a very large paycheck being dangled just out of frame.Įven so, the film largely supports itself on the charisma of a cast well-accustomed to their characters, Kendrick notwithstanding. ![]() At times it wants to be about legitimizing a cappella singing in contrast to instrumented bands, at others it wants to be about getting the gang back together for one last hurrah, and still others it wants to be a bizarre action parody starring Rebel Wilson, who is still giving her all to a franchise that might be her only claim to fame. This hodge-podge of storylines functions as less of a fully realized sequel than a combination of rehashed ideas and several new ones, providing neither a thematic throughline for the film or a coherent arc for the characters to communally follow. The tour also turns out to be a competition with instrumented bands to gain the attention of a famous DJ looking to sign a new artist, so the Bellas try one last shot at cooperative stardom. With the group reunited, they decide to go on one last tour as part of a USO show Aubrey’s ( Anna Camp) military father organized. After telling her roommate Fat Amy ( Rebel Wilson), the two suddenly remember that a Bellas reunion is going on that evening. We return to Beca ( Anna Kendrick) right as she quits her job as a music producer, citing creative differences with the idiot musicians she butts heads with. ![]() Sequels usually require a creative reason for existing to coincide with the financial realities of revisiting a popular story or cast, but the unfortunate fact of Pitch Perfect 3 is that it seemingly has no aspirations beyond cashing in on the success of the previous installments. Picking up on the lives of the Bellas in the years after their college stardom, this entry attempts to build a plot around nostalgia for times long past that just aren’t that long ago, which isn’t so much a criticism of quality as it is a question of motivation. Pitch Perfect 3 feels like the sort of sequel we might have expected from this franchise in ten years rather than a mere two years after the last installment.
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