Uninspired and repetitive

Rating: 4/10 (3 April 2016)

It only took 3 years until they came up with a sequel to the first "Pitch Perfect" movie. Let me start this review here by saying that I did not like the first film and I thought it was like 2.5 weaker Glee episodes added together. So I was very much surprised to see how well it was received. And I was even more surprised to see another director in charge here, namely actress Elizabeth Banks. I guess they even wanted to go with the entire girl power thingey also behind the camera. Unsurprisingly, this sequel got worse reception than the original, but still mostly positive. And also unsurprisingly, I also believe this film here does not deserve any of its praise. Banks' direction and Steinfeld's addition made me curious enough to give it a go, but I was disappointed again.
Let's start with the plot here. The Steinfeld story is basically a recycled version of Kendrick's story in the first film. And then they included some struggles about the direction the band is taking and some struggles between Kendrick's character and the other band members. At the beginning, the band really messes up, but predictably it all works out really well at the end again with their outdoor performance in Denmark in front of a huge crowd. The story is really really generic here and not creative at all. I don't think you can blame screenwriter Kay Cannon here. It's mostly Mickey Rapkin's fault because he delivered weak base material here.
As a whole, the film could have been kept a lot more essential and that way it would have run for 100 minutes max and that would have been fine. I personally believe that this was a missed opportunity here. The weak script lets talented actresses like Anna Kendrick and especially Hailee Steinfeld not show us the talent they possess. On a more negative note about the actresses, people need to stop trying to make Rebel Wilson happen. She is not funny and this has nothing to do with her physics. Actually she is the one whose approach to comedy is every single time entirely based on her clumsy chubby appearance and it gets repetitive so quickly. As a whole, this film was equally disappointing as the first, if not more. Still, in order to end the review on a more positive note, the singing performances and songs in here were fun to listen to I think. Some really catchy tunes and the ending with "Flashlight" was a thing of beauty. But it cannot make up for everything that went wrong before that. I do not recommend "Pitch Perfect 2". Thumbs down.