This year, I'm hoping to start writing The Stellar Adventures of Catalina in Neverland, a series of short stories about my Bitmoji, Catalina. I don't know when I'll start them but they'll be coming at some point this year. The other things you can expect from Stellar in Neverland in 2018 are pretty similar to what I did last year. Random lists and playlists, First Impressions, maybe a few rankings of any given topic from worst to best (that's new lol), and reviews, like today's post. My original plan was to do a 2-in-1 review of Pitch Perfect 3 with The Greatest Showman, but I haven't seen the latter so that's not going to happen. But that's okay, because I still have a lot to say about Pitch Perfect 3. I'm going to break this review down into four different parts, each talking about a different element of the movie: the plot, the acting/characters, the comedy, and the music. I will individually score each element, then average it all out for my overall score and state whether I recommend the movie or not. Now, considering that I ADORE the first two movies in the trilogy, (they made my list of my top 10 favorite movies, link here), I expected to love the newest installment just as much. Did I? I won't say until the end, so let's just get this started.
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| Image from the movie's Wikipedia page. Also, DISCLAIMER: There are gonna be minor spoilers in this review, so if you haven't seen the movie and don't want to be spoiled, DON'T READ THIS. |
The Plot: The plot was probably the biggest problem I had with the movie. The basic storyline is that the Barden Bellas, an all-female acapella group, have disbanded but decide to get back together because they are miserable in their real world jobs. The father of one of the Bellas (Aubrey, played by Anna Camp) is in the army, so he gives them a way to enter a competition where they get to sing for the troops. The winner gets to open for DJ Khaled, who had a surprisingly large role in the movie. I think DJ Khaled can be funny from time to time, but I'm getting sick of seeing him everywhere and I wish he was limited to a cameo. Other than my slight gripes with DJ Khaled, you're probably thinking that I really didn't have a problem with the plot, right? Well, there's one thing that I forgot to mention: about a third of the way in, Pitch Perfect 3 decides it wants to be a crime-action thriller instead of a light-hearted musical comedy like its predecessors. Fat Amy ( played by Rebel Wilson) is the prime example of a character who is really funny in small doses but just simply isn't strong enough to carry an entire movie. Apparently nobody told the producers this, because they decided to give Fat Amy of all characters a tragic backstory about her spy-criminal father. Her father (played by John Lithgow) finds her on an island in Spain with the Bellas and tries to get closer to her as a means of obtaining the $180 million bank account Amy's mother left for her on a faraway island. Eventually, he kidnaps the Bellas and threatens to kill them as a way to lure Amy to him, which is creepy. Had the movie gone with the conflict I expected from the trailer of the acapella group learning to compete with bands with real instruments, I would've enjoyed the plot a lot more. As it is, the plot gets a 5/10 from me because of how genuinely WTF the subplot with Fat Amy's father was.
The Acting/Characters: This is a comedy movie, so of course you shouldn't go into it expecting any Oscar-worthy performances, but for what it's worth, the actors do pretty well in their roles. The emotions necessary for these movies rely more on comedic timing than emotional depth, so most of the actors excelled. I also enjoyed some of the new additions to the cast, like the bands that used real instruments. It did feel like the bands were underused and really only appeared in the first half, and I would've liked the conflict to revolve around them more. What was most disappointing about the characters was that it was less about the Bellas and more only about Fat Amy. True, Beca (played by Anna Kendrick) still had a pretty big role and we got to see a little into the other Bellas' lives, but for the most part, this felt less like Pitch Perfect 3 and more like The Fat Amy Show...or rather The Fat Amy Movie. And look, I like Fat Amy, I think Rebel Wilson is pretty funny, but she's far better as a fan-favorite comic relief character than the star of the whole thing. And considering this is the final movie in the trilogy, I wished it focused more on the dynamic of the Bellas as a group than just on Fat Amy. 6.5/10
The Comedy: Considering the first two movies are comedic-quote goldmines, I expected this movie to also be one. While there weren't as many instantly quotable moments as its predecessors, this movie still was pretty funny. The very best quote in the movie is when the fictional girl group Evermoist (yes, that's what they're actually called) are introducing themselves as Calamity, Serenity, Veracity, and Charity, to which Amy responds, "If I joined your group, I could be Obesity." I found that absolutely hilarious. I also thought it was funny when the Bellas were at this fancy party at DJ Khaled's suite. There's this one part where the party gets really crazy (meaning things get destroyed, Khaled's private chef's beehive breaks loose, and there's a fire), yet Beca is just sitting there nonchalantly making sick beats with Khaled's DJ equipment. Finally, one other funny part I'd like to mention is Amy's attempts to save the girls after her father kidnaps them on his yacht. If I remember correctly, she fights some of her father's minions in the yacht's kitchen with a stick of sausage, which was hilarious. Despite my overall opinion that the "Amy's father" arc was unnecessary and the scenes in question being EXTREMELY over-the-top, they still got quite a few chuckles out of me. For me, the comedy was easily the best thing about this movie. 9/10
The Music: The Pitch Perfect franchise is, at large, about acapella groups, so there is naturally lots of music in the series. The soundtracks mostly consist of acapella renditions of popular songs, and this movie was no exception. Some of the songs I was happiest to see in the movie were "Toxic" by Britney Spears, "Love Me Harder" by Ariana Grande, and most of all, "Shut Up And Dance" by Walk The Moon. I also enjoyed how the movie incorporated different styles of music like punk rock, bluegrass, and rap with the bands that use real instruments. We also get to see some of Beca's original music, which sounded pretty cool to me. The problem for me was that this movie just felt like it didn't have as much music as its predecessors. The first half of the movie had a lot of music with the Riff-Off scene, but after that the music was pretty sparse. It felt like they focused more on the spy aspects of the plot than the music aspects, which was not a good move for me. The music was good, I just wish there was more of it. 7.5/10
My score averaged out to a 7/10, which is about what I'd give it. This film has a ton of flaws and I personally can't wait for CinemaSins to tally up everything wrong with it. Objectively, it's probably a 5.5/10 at best. However, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy this movie a lot. I went with my mom and my brother on opening day and we all had a really fun time. This is the last movie in the series, which means my mom and I won't have our tradition of going to see the movies on opening day anymore and will therefore have to find a new girls' night tradition. Despite that, I do think it probably was time for this series to end so the actors are able to move on with their lives, and the ending was bittersweet and pretty satisfying. If you liked the first two movies, you'll probably like Pitch Perfect 3, but I would say you should probably see the first two prior to watching this one, both because you can get into the plot more and also because they're just more enjoyable movies for me.
This was my first movie review, and honestly I think I did pretty okay for my first time. These probably won't be a regular occurrence on Stellar in Neverland since I don't see movies in theatres very often, but who knows? I'm probably going to see The Greatest Showman at some point, so I'll review it when I do. And as for my next post, I have absolutely NO IDEA what it's going to be, but you can find it next Wednesday. I'm Stellar in Neverland, signing off, and I'll see you then. Peace!
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