Suffers from sequel dimishing returns but worth it for DJ Khalid

Rating: 5/10 (9 January 2018)

Movies not originally written as a multipart series struggle to avoid a natural decline in entertaining power. The Anna Kendrick series offers a textbook example of this cinematic principle. The nerdy acapella jokes which made the original refreshing feel stale, you've seen the song battle with unusual singing groups (e.g., the Green Bay Packers) before, the big movie-ending showdown is more ritual than riveting. To its credit the movie breaks the fourth wall to acknowledge some of these tropes most insightfully when Beca explains the impromptu sing-offs and then mentions that they always seem to lose them. Like the 2nd outing the movie could have used some editing particularly around a B plot involving John Litghow as Fat Amy's father. The gravity of sequel physics might have made #2 the bail out point if not for one man - the incomprarable DJ Khalid. The possibly genius / possibly raving idiot quote machine gets a hilarious scene where he spouts inpenetrable DJ Khalid philosphy why an assistant translates for the audience ("what DJ Khalid means here is you need to let go of the anchor of the past if you want to rise to your future.") Nobody has yet heard the first 2 or 3 lines following the scene as movie-goers were still gaffawing. In short, when will DJ Khalid get his own movie?