An aca-awesome sequel that doesn't quite live up to its predecessor

Rating: 7/10 (30 May 2015)

I really enjoyed the first Pitch Perfect, the music was all great and it was just a very fun and enjoyable film to watch, so this film did have quite a bit to live up to, and although it may not have quite reached the level of its predecessor it was still a pretty fun film. This movie included everything you would expect Pitch Perfect 2 to include, great songs, aca-exciting music battles, pretty funny humour and all accompanied by a story that you can kinda get behind, so pretty much what you saw in the first film. And being similar to the first film kinda hurt the film a little bit but it also ensured that we got what we wanted from this sequel whilst also giving us some new additions. The songs in this film really are fun and great to sing along to but i do prefer the songs in the first film just a little more, maybe because i've heard them a lot since first seeing the film. Some song choices were..... interesting, but i understand they needed some variety in there. And a lot of that variety came from the German additions to the film who from the first moment you can tell are an A Capella powerhouse, unfortunately they didn't really factor in to the plot as much as i would have liked, instead they are more just there to perform and leave. And those big performances really are the highlight of the film just as they were in the original, not much changed in the setup from the first one with the always hilarious judges finding a way to make an appearance, but they really are the big wow moments.
The humour in this film worked almost just as well as the first film but i felt that quite a bit of it was slightly recycled, still focusing on the stereotypes introduced in the first film. Some was new and got me laughing but some was obviously rehashing what was already done. The low point of the film had to be the overall plot, it had the same problems the first one had, i again found myself not quite enjoying some parts then mack to enjoying it and then not enjoying it a little, it was just a tad inconsistent. Some of the subplots i felt were just thrown in there to bring back characters from the first film, but they did factor in to the plot sometimes so that was OK.
But in the end this is a musical, and the reason why i wanted to see this film and you want to see this film is for the music (and Anna Kendrick) and the music is aca-awesome and will make for a great soundtrack. - 7