I’m not going to miss this series when it’s gone.
Pitch Perfect 2 is a jumbled up version of the first film’s already subpar plot: it’s stale, less funny, more awkward, and a ton more offensive! As with many bad sequels, Pitch Perfect 2 reuses multiple plot points from its profitable predecessor—most likely in hopes of achieving the same success as the first. Now this isn’t always a bad idea; perhaps director Elisabeth Banks (who has replaced Pitch Perfect director Jason Moore) found promising material in the original, yet felt its overall execution could have been done better. Yet while possibly the reason, Banks ends up with a bigger mess than the first.
Pitch Perfect 2 is a jumbled up version of the first film’s already subpar plot: it’s stale, less funny, more awkward, and a ton more offensive! As with many bad sequels, Pitch Perfect 2 reuses multiple plot points from its profitable predecessor—most likely in hopes of achieving the same success as the first. Now this isn’t always a bad idea; perhaps director Elisabeth Banks (who has replaced Pitch Perfect director Jason Moore) found promising material in the original, yet felt its overall execution could have been done better. Yet while possibly the reason, Banks ends up with a bigger mess than the first.
The comedy is less humorous and charming, while the uncomfortable awkwardness Pitch Perfect infamously uses has been increased. The plot seems uncertain about which direction to head, or who the focus is about; is the film about our previous protagonist Beca (Anna Kendrick) or newcomer Emily Junk (Hailee Steinfeld)? Emily is a painfully forced character, created obviously as a marketing tool for making a third film possible after the original cast departs. Additionally, the film shamelessly pulls a “Dirty Dancing” tactic during its big singing finale, introducing an original song clearly done to promote Hailee Steinfeld to singing stardom—all while playing it off in-movie as a “risk taking move” for the competition. It doesn’t work effectively into the plot however, as original songs were blatantly shown earlier to be a loathed tactic in a cappella competitions; yet suddenly—and specifically during the finale with their “new hit song”—judges and fans alike are gushingly accepting of such approach. It’s a cheap marketing tactic done to promote a new song at the cost of demeaning Pitch Perfect 2 even further; I didn’t like it in Dirty Dancing, and I didn’t like it here.
Similar to its predecessor however, between Pitch Perfect 2’s blunders and awkwardness are several quality aspects I truly enjoyed. While the comedy as a whole is worse than the original, there are areas which can be downright hilarious. The “extreme-popularity” of a cappella is better satirized here, having The Bellas perform for the President on his birthday as well as having the international a cappella competition seem as popular as the Super Bowl. The a cappella commentators (played by John Michael Higgins and our director Elizabeth Banks) once again steal any scene they’re in with witty and entertainingly inappropriate commentary. The film has a field day playing with what exactly the duo’s job is—having them as commentators, officials, judges, a cappella committee members, and American representatives at the world competition.
There are several comedy gold scenes, including Snoop Dogg singing Winter Wonderland (it makes sense in context) and a hilarious cameo from the Green Bay Packers’ a cappella team (which did not make sense in context, but was all the more hilarious). There’s an a cappella match between The Bellas and four other teams (one of them being the Green Bay Packers) which is a ton of fun to watch—though it does end on a rather predictable note. Lastly there’s the dark horse herself, Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson), who’s still as enjoyably distinctive as in the first film. With Fat Amy comes a romantic subplot involving Bumper (Adam DeVine), who I hated in the first film yet found quite amusing here. Bumper’s new likability is thanks to his character change, going from semi-pathetic jerk to pitiful wannabe with a heart of gold. Their romantic pairing is amusing while likewise being genuinely touching, hitting its climax in a delightful serenade from Fat Amy to Bumper.
Unfortunately, despite such positives helping to soften Pitch Perfect 2’s subpar aspects, the film had to go and be incredibly offensive. We’re not talking about “all in good fun” political incorrectness here, we’re talking Sixteen Candles “Long Duk Dong” levels of offensiveness and stereotypes. There’s a ton of lazily written race, gender, religion and appearance jokes throughout the film, most of them being painfully unfunny. The jokes feel more of shock value—puns told simply to jab at someone different. Most of the jokes come right out of nowhere, as if the writers wanted to fill up space with humor yet couldn’t think of anything witty or clever—so instead they went, “just make fun of Chloe being a ginger” or “let’s have her dating a Jew so we can make a rich Jew joke”.
The worst and most notable example comes from the film’s new character Flo (Chrissie Fit), a Guatemalan student created solely as a token minority stereotype of illegal immigrants—and by solely, I mean that’s all there is to her character, NOTHING ELSE. She’s not even a character really, since there’s barely anything which resembles personality. Flo’s screen time consists of “jokes” such as how horrible her homeland is or how she’ll soon be deported after college and die. Actually, why try to explain when I can simply quote her lines from the film:
“You know, before coming the Barden, I had diarrhea for seven years.”
“When I was 9 years old, my brother tried to sell me for a chicken.”
“After I graduate, there’s a chance I’ll be deported; I’ll try to reenter this country, but I will probably die at sea.”
One would think after going at least three (possibly four) years to Barden University, Flo would have more to talk about than these two subjects—possibly some interests or whatever her major may be. Flo was created solely as a means for racist stereotypical humor; the film pushes such humor beyond any point of “all in good fun”, draining any comedy and charm from such scenes.
What truly ticks me off is when lesbian Cynthia (which of course is her only defining characteristic) declares she’s getting hitched in Maine. What irritates me isn’t the gay marriage aspect (heaven forbid someone think I’m against gay marriage), but rather how the film announces it. The scene has zero foreshadowing, lasts about 5 seconds, and is never shown nor brought up again for the rest of the film. Cynthia is the only Bella to have a fiancée, so wouldn’t her fellow singers—who have all been at college together for four years—have been aware of such a serious relationship, or at least show more enthusiasm at the announcement. It felt as if the writers wanted to “prove” their support after multiple stereotypical jokes at lesbians, but didn’t want to display any sort of relationship—let alone have the simple appearance of Cynthia’s fiancée. Instead they quickly threw together an announcement scene to show they support same-sex relationships without having to show any same-sex relationships. Granted such elusiveness may have to do with the MPAA, who will not hesitate to slap an R-rating on any film which has the balls to show a serious gay relationship (even if it’s as simple as kissing). Yet even the MPAA doesn’t excuse the incredibly piss-poor way Pitch Perfect 2 handled such scenario, which just ended up really pissing me off!
Pitch Perfect 2 is a less funny, more offensive recycling of the original subpar film. There was potential for this film—certain jokes are hilarious, there’s better satirizing, and returning characters work more effectively. Yet even such glimmer of potential couldn’t stop Pitch Perfect 2 from being an utter mess. Unless Pitch Perfect 3 is a Fat Amy spinoff, I believe it’s time to leave this series for good. I will not be missing its hair, nor will I miss it everywhere.
