I honestly didn’t think that they’d make a third Pitch Perfect movie. Although the tag line of this third film is ‘ ‘Last Call, Pitches’ so it’s safe to assume that this is the last one.

I didn’t think I’d get to the cinema in time to catch the 4pm showing but the traffic gods were kind and I got to my seat with five minutes to spare.

Here’s my round up of Trish Sie’s (Step Up All In (2014)) Pitch Perfect 3.

Please note that there may be spoilers.  Read at your own risk.

THE STORY:

The Bellas are out of Barden and they are all – and I mean all – suffering through a serious case of quarter life crisis. Becca (Anna Kendrick) just quit her job, Chloe’s (Brittany Snow) not sure that she can get into vet school, Aubrey (Anna Camp) absolutely hates her job and Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) is basically bumming off in Becca’s apartment. When Emily (Hailee Steinfeld) invites them for a Bellas reunion, they realize that there’s nothing more in the world that they’d like to do than to perform together on stage again. Luckily the opportunity to do so presents itself when Aubrey’s father, a high ranking military personnel, gets them an invite to be one of the performers on a USO tour for the soldiers serving military duty in Europe.

THE GOOD:

1. They ALL looked super gorgeous. I honestly don’t know how Trish Sie does it, but she always makes the ladies in her movies look absolutely beautiful.

   

2. It wasn’t just about Becca this time. Okay, it was still mostly about Becca, but at least everybody had some sort of solid storyline.
3. Fat Amy’s ridiculous story arc. I can see people hating this bit but to me it makes sense. After all, she entered Barden under a fake name and no one really has any idea where she came from. In my review of the second film, I said that Fat Amy wasn’t rounded enough of a character to have her own story arc, but an outrageous arc like this suits her perfectly.

   

4. John Lithgow!!! Especially because he sang a song with an Australian accent.
5. The lack of the Treblemakers because boyfriends only complicate things in these movies.

   

6. That they got everybody to reprise their roles, even just for small bits. It really made the film feel more emotional because every Bella who was there in the very beginning was there in the finale.

   

7. I liked how sincere the movie came off as. There were a lot of beats in the movie that didn’t work but the underlying ‘we are family’ theme wasn’t one of them. It didn’t come off as cheesy and I know that pulling that shit off without sounding cheesy couldn’t have been easy. I mean, come on.

THE BAD:

1. The lack of performances by the ‘competition’. They made such a big freakin’ deal that Ruby Rose was in this film and we hardly ever saw her. I get that ultimately this was the Bellas’ story but this was probably the least amount of songs we got out of the Bellas’ competitors.
2. That montage in the middle of the film was just a waste. I wish they put just one more full sequence of a performance, either by the Bellas or the other bands. That one montage made it all feel rushed.
3. There were a lot of weird close-ups during the performances. I guess the director is used to shooting dance performances but that doesn’t work with the Bellas performances, you know?

THE UGLY:

1. Everybody got a story line (which was good) but they weren’t developed properly. Arguably there were too many story lines to be fit into one movie, a musical one at that, but I honestly feel that in the hands of a more capable director, the different storylines could have worked well together. As it is, there were a lot of personal conflicts to be resolved on top of the musical competition and it was just messy. There’s no other word for it.

All in all, Pitch Perfect 3 (2017) was an okay movie to watch. I really liked the first film and thought that the second one was just so-so but they kind of got me back with this movie because, despite its flaws, it felt very sincere. At least this time, everybody else got to share the spotlight with Becca and while it did come out somewhat muddied, I appreciate the effort. Performances were pretty good all around and because I feel like I grew up with these characters, this movie did feel like a good send off.

THE VERDICT: 6.6/10 because there weren’t a lot of songs in this one and I really came for the music.

*All photos are lifted from the film’s IMDB page.