"1,2,3,4"

Rating: 7/10 (1 November 2016)

It is almost inevitable to compare the movie with its peers such as Glee and High School Musicals. The TV show Glee was entertaining at first, even novel to me as a teenager ---- I was impressed at how music could be incorporated into a normal flow of storyline. On the other hand, the time when everyone fell in love with Zac Efron seemed to be so vivid that it happened just yesterday. However, such musical dramas either became repetitive or overly romantic after several seasons or sequels and I finally stopped watching.
I have watched Pitch Perfect three times. When I watched it first time under the pressure of my best friend, I did not like it. Considering at the time, I had little knowledge of American pop music and had hard time trying to figure out the jokes, and not to mention I watched it because someone else was watching me, we can just ignore that. The second time was at the beginning of my freshman year. I had so high of an expectation of the college life that I actually thought all of that would happen to me and I even went to the audition for the school Aca- pella group. Now when I watched film, I have quite different ideas I detected from the film social commentary.
The movie, to start with, is all about initiation. The protagonist Becca initiated her college life at the first scene, initiated conversation with her weird roommate, then initiated her college "Fall fest"......all the way to initiate herself as a member of Barden Bellas, initiate the fight within the group, and initiate a romance with a guy. The movie seems so close because the Bellas are simply everyone on campus. Not like the shiny stars in High School Musicals, the characters are far from perfect and typical, yet they all achieved some progress in the end. As the plot thickens, we see each one of them arc again and again and again and every time they made a progress, although in part because it is a teenage movie, it is such a pleasing and encouraging moment. Other social commentaries are also moving. For example, one of them points to the fact that in the trajectory to success, a team either makes change or everyone on the team has to abide the rules, and change means conflict. Equally worth mentioning in the movie is its relatively little emphasis on the singing trainings and practices. That is to say, the movie is actually not about singing, but rather about the transition of the characters.
Highlight of cinematography in this movie is the scenes of Riff Off. Apparently, it is a group scene and therefore it is somewhat difficult to draw audience's 100% attention to a particular group who is singing. By making the background completely dark and redirect light on the singing group, the problem is cleverly resolved. Also in this plot, we see the opposing posture of the competing groups, which increases the dynamics of the movie.
One thing I do not like about the film, or maybe it is because that I have not fully understand the film, is the Treblemakers part. The group seemed to be pure antagonist while at the same time, because there is also good side about them, for example they took the girls to the semi- regionals, I question their role in the movie. Is the appearance in the movie supposed to act an antagonist/ opponent or the director is also trying to convey some idea through him?
Overall, the movie is a lot about initiation. That is why I think this title "1,2,3,4" would be the best summary, because after the "1,2,3,4" unveils the break-throughs.