PITCH PERFECT 2 Could Have Been Better

For most people Pitch Perfect wasn’t something they saw in the cinema. They watched in on DVD on a whim or chanced it after hearing about it from a friend. Released just as Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson’s careers were on the rise (and was possibly one of the films that gave them a leg up) it initially went under the radar, but as the years have passed the film has garnered great reviews and the Barden Bellas now have a huge fanbase. It has been held up as a honest to goodness comedy where, finally, the women have the chance to crack the jokes. And so it was with great anticipation that I, like many others, looked forward to this new sequel. Maybe my hopes were too high, or maybe the makers didn’t try hard enough, but Pitch Perfect 2 really could have been better.

Same old, same old

One of Pitch Perfect’s great selling points was its characters. Their diversity, their talent and their wit really set them apart from other female film characters. But whereas you would hope for them to develop in the sequel they actually take a step back. Beca (Anna Kendrick) is just the same, talented but still kind of selfish. Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) makes some good jokes, but a few are probably meaner than they should be. Everyone else is pretty much the same, but less so. They have less to say and less time to say it, almost as if this were the original and the characters are just finding their feet.

But my great quarrel with this sequel’s characterisation is the heavily stereotyped German acappella group (Das Sound Machine) that are positioned at the Bellas’ enemy. They are one huge Kraftwerk rip-off, with lots of outdated stereotypical Germanic traits. They are cold, calculating, mean, they wear black shirts… which is a bit disconcerting. The lead singer is simply given the character name ‘Kommissar’ which translates as commissioner, and the actress playing her is Danish. Their name alone inspired contempt in me; Das Sound Machine? Really? To be fair in English it would ‘The Sound Machine’ and in German it would be ‘Der Sound-Maschine’. But the hyper-stereotype I found annoying, they’re introduced on screen at a Volkswagen event for goodness sake!

If the Kraftwerk-ites weren’t enough to annoy, for some reason members of the NFL Green Bay Packers also make an appearance as an acappella group. I don’t know why they are there, all I know is that we’re treated to performances by them when more screen time could have been given to the Bellas classmates, The Treblemakers. In fact, Skylar Astin as Jesse (Beca’s boyfriend) is sadly underused throughout the film. And I think it’s poorer for it.

Kay Cannon Returns

Pitch Perfect 2 was written by Kay Cannon, scribe of the original film. But while it definitely feels like her writing, there is a lot wrong with it. As stated above, character development seems to have been put on the backburner. And while there are a lot of good jokes, some of the scenes run on for far longer than they should. The storyline is okay and has a point, but it does feel like we meander up to instead of triumphantly arrive at it.

Fat Amy’s relationship with Bumper is developed, but nothing about it feels right. We see nothing more of Beca and Jesse’s relationship. And the other Bellas are frankly ignored. Jokes are even made about the fact that two (or maybe it was three?) new characters in the Bellas don’t even get a name check. Furthermore, it all feels a bit strange that the crux of the storyline rests on the fact that the Bellas championship title and accolades have been taken away from them because of something accidental. Fat Amy’s outfit rips on stage and this is grounds for such a grand punishment?

I had high hopes

But for all the problems I have with the script, it could have been pretty good if it had not been for one plain and simple fact; Elizabeth Banks is not a good director. To be fair, this is Banks’ first feature film as director, but her lack of skill shows. Almost every scene is dragged out unnecessarily, but then every one of Cannon’s quirky one-liners (and there are many excellent ones) is dashed out so quickly it’s not given time to breathe. For such a great comedy actress, Banks really has no understanding of how to direct comic timing.

Essentially I think the failure of this film to be truly excellent actually lies in Banks’ direction. Apart from those elements mentioned above it seems like it affected some of the less experienced actors’ performances. The young Hailee Steinfeld just isn’t very good in this, she plays Emily quite poorly in fact. Emily is supposed to be the great hope for the next generation of the Bellas, talented but kind of dorky, but she just seems silly and her comedic moments fall flat. On the other hand, Keegan-Michael Key is a seasoned comedy actor and as Beca’s record producer boss he manages to overturn a scary stereotype and be quite interesting.

At the end of the day a lot of these kinds of problems can be fixing in editing, but with Banks’ poor direction and her most likely overseeing the edit, they just couldn’t be. Which is a great shame.

And the rest

I haven’t mentioned the music once in this review, because it doesn’t feel as much fun as it was in the first film. The girls have plenty of moments but nothing is truly interesting or memorable. That’s not because this is a sequel and we’ve seen it all before, but because there really are no great musical moments. Even the finale seems a bit lacklustre.

One of Pitch Perfect 2’s greatest selling points was its representation of women. Kendrick’s refusal to cut a sexy pose on the film’s poster even provoked a trend across social networks, where fans would take photos of themselves looking steely in front of the poster and send it to Kendrick online. It was supposed to be an empowering film. But as a woman watching this film I felt a bit patronised by the ongoing product placements for Cover Girl and Pantene. The choice to wear make-up is completely up to each individual woman’s desire to be whatever she wants to be. But I felt like the absolute abundance of make-up and false eyelashes worn by the leads to be distracting. In fact, the product placements overall were annoying and unnecessary for what should have been an easily funded film.

Conclusion

You might think that I expected too much. Because sequels are never as good as their originals, right? In all honestly, Pitch Perfect 2 is not a terrible film: it’s just okay when it could have been spectacular. What’s worse is that it could have been made spectacular so easily. The makers managed to make something original with the first film, and the blueprints for the second film had so much potential, then it all went pear-shaped with Banks’ direction (my dislike of the German stereotypes aside).

A few small tweaks in the production phase could have put it on the right path and I could have been talking about what a great sequel it was. But I’m not. And I’m terribly grumpy that so much time and effort was put into something that knew how to be good but didn’t try hard enough to get there.

Have you seen Pitch Perfect 2? What did you think of it?

FYI: A couple of the scenes you see in the trailer aren’t in the film. Including that awful World War Two joke, thank goodness.

(top image source: Universal Studios)