Well it hasn't been too long since Age of Ultron blasted across cinema screens, and was amazing in the process, although it's one of those retrospective movies which gets worse the more you think about it. But that's a post for another time. Remember a while ago when I said Pitch Perfect 2 and Mad Max: Fury Road came out on the same day? Well, that day was today! So I've got two reviews I'm writing today and, sad to say, I'm saving the best til last.
Look, I want to start by saying Pitch Perfect 2 is not a bad movie. It's still got the fun and the jokes of the first one, all the main characters you know and love are there (except Donald - he will be sorely missed) but that's... kinda the problem.
It's effectively the same movie. The college a Capella finals have been replaced by the world championships, the Treblemakers by German group Das Sound Machine, but it's beat-for-beat the same movie with more expensive-looking sets. It even has a riff-off, albeit in an underground club in some weirdo's mansion.
Actually, the riff-off has been one of the best parts of the franchise: it showcases a wide range of music and the turn-by-turn nature of the act gives it a real playing-for-something feel. There's cutting in, it's messy, it works well as a battle format and it has an immediacy that the finals/championships never really do. But the fact that it's back, and in more or less the same place in the movie too, it's kind of a let down.
But the jokes! They're... exactly the same too. like, there's not a lot of new material. Rebel Wilson still provides the laughs, as do the commentators who provide some witty banter and "mansplaining" jokes (still funny, by the way, especially Elizabeth Banks' reactions). It still got a lot of laughs, but it's not gonna hit the mark if you've seen the first one.
Okay, onto the good quickly, because I'm kinda bummed that I'm saying this about a Pitch Perfect movie. First, the cinematography: yeah, it was mainly close-ups when one character or another had their funny line to say and very unimaginative as a whole, but there were scenes where they did something different, they shot parts of it documentary-style, selfie-style, and it was really interesting to watch. It became engaging, rather than just like watching a read-through.
Second, of course the music was great, but the finale had a greater payoff than the original. It felt bigger, it felt more personal to the characters and to the story of the Bellas, rather than the first which was pretty much Anna Kendrick's movie (and is still awesome). And the characters all had something personal going on, something which wasn't just played for jokes all the time. It was great to see the characters explore all their stories and have their individual difficulties, rather than simply failing as a unit. That happened too, and was the main plot, but the little side plots were much more interesting.
I think Pitch Perfect 2 tries to do too much, that's the problem. It's not just the side-plots - which could've worked fine as a plot on their own, without the need for the Bellas failing again - but the whole style of the movie as it tries to work around all these individual little stories while still providing the laughs. The team building retreat halfway through is full of laughs and character, it's new ground and it's one of the best bits because everything comes together.
Look at the beginning of the film to see my point. It's so choppy, we go from jokes to introducing a new character to another quick joke to a song to another joke, all cuts and no flow. There's no flow to the movie, no through-path. The second half is a lot better, because everything's come together and everyone's problems are one. And I get it, to have that from the start wouldn't have worked, but they could've used character to get around that, rather than the same old tired plot. They didn't need to fall back on the story of the first movie, because that just made it all the harder to put everything together in a coherent string around the bulk of the A-line plot.
I think that makes sense - I think I'm ill today, I can't really concentrate long enough to write for long. But yeah, there's a lot of problems, the jokes are nothing new, but the second half gets good and the finale feels better than the original.
Adieu!
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